This world is all about "what have you done for me lately." Soon enough, people will forget about Jordan's greatness and put LeBron up there. I personally disagree with that- a large part of it is age. Many of the LeBron fans are young and didn't witness Jordan and his brand of basketball and many older fans can't get over what they saw in Jordan and can never replace him. Father time is undefeated, so eventually it will sort itself out and people will talk about the greatness of LeBron. FWIW, I think it's too late for LeBron to overtake Jordan. To see the things that Jordan did on a nightly basis all while redefining the sports world are insurmountable. In my mind, he was and always will be the greatest. But obviously I'm biased.
true, the league is a good bit watered down now, just watching a few games in our series against the thunder was a joke as they constantly called preposterous calls for nearly breathing on durant. lebrons a force, pretty strong but better than Jordan.. ehh idk... Jordan was like kobe times 3 on the court with better freakish athleticism, he would dunk on like 3 guys on a nightly basis with his tongue out, laugh, then come back down and take it to everyone.Literally! Jordan was more skilled as well so he'll probably be declared the best when most of the people who witnessed Jordan fade away.
LeBron is all world, and I think it's unfair to say he has to match Jordan's resume line for line. Won't be possible. I think what those of us over 30 remember is Jordan dominating. We are not comparing highlight reels. Instead of watching Jordan's highlights, please watch Jordan's games. Watch the highlights in the context of him dominating the game. On both ends.
When were talking about Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol, and Brook Lopez as the greatest big men of today. They are merely boys when compared to the likes of Olajuwon, Patrick Ewings, Karl Malone, David Robinson, and Charles Barkleys of the world MJ had to deal with.
Rings mean nothing in the context of history. What Jordan did for the NBA, bringing it all sorts of viewership and building it's brand, is what makes him the GOAT. It's also damn near impossible to compare the 2. Lebron plays more like a Magic 2.0, than Jordan. Lebron didn't have a teammate anywhere near as good as Pippen until he got to the Heat. The league's rules have changed so much making the game much different than Jordan's era. If skill set (how many things a player can do well) (which is in part due to Lebron getting to watch Jordan and getting help from Dream) or who would win 1 on 1 is the only determining factor, Lebron is already the GOAT. I don't believe it is though, so Jordan imo will stay the GOAT or at worse share the title with Lebron.
He has to go back in time when the league used real rules and there were real players dominating the post. Also, he needs undergo all steriod/HGH/whatever tests, because apparently the NBA's policy on that is lax currently. So yeah, there's really no way he can surpass MJ in my mind unless he wins 6, he's got to win 6 first before I even start to consider it.
seriously? I'll admit these miami teams are good but actually? Those bulls teams had just as good a line up as these heat teams. Do people seriously forget how good toni kukoc was? Did you know in the 91-92 which is considered one of the weakest bulls teams was 1st in offensive rating and 3rd in defensive rating. Per 36 minutes they had 12 players shoot roughly 50% and average 10-12 points. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CHI/1992.html#per_minute::none as a team, these heat are not even close statistically to how good those Bulls teams were. It's only this year where they are comparable and coincedently Lebron is also playing the best basketball of his career around the same age Jordan was. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MIA/2013.html#per_game::none We also saw them tear through the league very similar to the 96 Bulls, personally I think we're seeing a player who in his prime is Jordan's equal in terms of leadership and winning. Personally feel like the hate comes from the new age form of leadership which makes him appear as everyones buddy rather than barking orders.
Maybe that had something to do with Jordan being on the court. Is it possible that Horace Grant and Will Perdue scored as much as they did and shot as high a percentage as they did because of Jordan's dominance and the attention he drew? <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4NoT8m50_UI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Jordan didn't have to team up with another MVP caliber player because that player was drafted by his team. When Jordan retired Pippen finished 3rd in MVP voting and led the Bulls to 50+ wins and close to the conf finals. And when he came back he was just fine teaming with another HOF PF that used to bodyslam him for 4 years. I don't see what's tough to compare. No wing has won anything without another star on his team. The Bulls drafted a star for Jordan and they won in their 4th year together. The Cavs never got LeBron a star and he won in his 2nd season of having star teammates.
Carry a team to the Finals. Considering that we have never seen Jordan or Kobe carry a team past the 1st round without another star player on it, I would say that's pretty damn impressive.
Would last years Heat team have won 55 games and come one shot away from going to the ECF's (arguably) without LeBron? That's what those Bulls did without Jordan.
Did you also consider the rules change that would've affected Jordan in almost every positive ways? He would have so much more FTs plus easier time driving into the lane. Yeah Toni Kukoc was good, but was he on Bosh's level -> can he be the number 1 guy on a weak team and lead them to the playoffs? Is he even on Ray Allen's level? Also considering how much attention MJ draws that created easy buckets for his team mates, it's not hard to reach a higher shooting %. Plus teams were in general just more efficient back in the 90s due to emphasis in post plays. If you take out Lebron and Jordan, and let that Bulls team play this Heat team in a 7 game series, who do you have on top?
This is crazy, obviously the bulls team would win. Apart from MJ, that team had Dennis Rodman, Pippen, Kukoc, Kerr, Paxson+big guys who could block the paint and one of the greatest coaches of all time. Heat don't have a center and are relying on Bosh, breaking down Wade/Allen/Battier to pull them through. Fun Fact: Bulls without MJ reached the ECF, the Finals, and were the 4rth best team in league history.
See, this is the problem, most of the posters here were growing up when MJ went on the scene and ate the Nike propaganda full force, now most of you guys have trouble separating MJ the player from MJ the spacejam character. If the handcheck rules were brought back LBJ would dominate even more than he does, he's basically Karl Malone with MJ's speed. Good as he is MJ's only 6'5, 6'6, LBJ has at least 2 inches and 20 pounds of muscle on him. I understand most guys here want the "good old days", but honestly time makes NBA players evolve, the average NBA player now is miles ahead of an average NBA player in the 80's in terms of athleticism and raw ability, a big reason why so many players are unskilled compared to yesteryear. Obviously MJ would become even more dominant if he played in today's era, but at the same time if you brought everyone back to today's NBA a lot of them would look like the GOAT, esp. the big men. In fact, guys like Kareem and Hakeem would look even more GOAT-ish than MJ, because while there are a lot of amazing wing players nowadays, the best big men are Dwight Howard, Marc Gasol, with guys like Roy Hibbert and Omer Asik actually being in the top 10. lol!
Well why nitpick? Why pick a "weak" bulls year and then get this year's team, which had been bolstered by vets like Ray Allen and Battier? Why not compare last year's team, which had just Wade, Bosh, Joel Anthony, Battier, Chalmers and Miller apart from LBJ?
it amazes me how his character contrasts with the cheating, gambling, cocky MJ who flew his schizophrenic HS coach out to his HOF speech to bash him. LBJ is a true idol
