The Greatest of All Time: LeBron James vs Michael Jordan

No debate in sports history has been argued more passionately, more fiercely, more incessantly.

LeBron James or Michael Jordan - Who’s the best basketball player of all time? Decades later, it’s still unsettled, and maybe that’s the point.

The Case for Michael Jordan

Jordan’s legacy depends on one rock-hard, unassailable pillar: brilliance on the biggest stage.

Jordan won six championships, six Finals MVP awards, five regular season MVP awards and ten scoring titles.

He was never defeated in the Finals; Six appearances, six rings. That 6-0 Finals record is the basis of every Jordan argument, and it is almost impossible to counter.

In 35 games in the NBA Finals, Jordan averaged 33.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists, stats that show a man who stepped up time and time again when the game was on the line.

His defensive credentials are just as unimpeachable – the only player in NBA history to earn Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, five MVP awards and six Finals MVPs.

The Case for LeBron

The case for LeBron is based on longevity, volume, and adaptability that no player in the history of the sport has matched.

He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer in both the regular season and playoffs, with 43,440 regular season points and 8,289 playoff points, and the league's only player to score over 50,000 combined points in the regular season and playoffs.

James has won four NBA championships in 10 Finals appearances, including eight consecutive appearances from 2011-18.

Only the Bill Russell-era Boston Celtics of the 1950s and 60s can match that eight-year streak of Finals appearances.

He is the first player in NBA history with at least 10,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists in a career.

The Debate Gets Complicated

Jordan's admirers cite his Finals record as final. LeBron's camp says going to ten Finals with three different teams (Cleveland, Miami, Los Angeles) is a burden Jordan never had to bear. And there is the question of the era and role.

Jordan was a shooting guard in a system that was designed around him. LeBron has been the primary playmaker, rim protector and finisher all at once — usually on weak rosters.

His 2016 Finals victory with Cleveland, coming back from a 3-1 deficit against a 73-win Golden State team, is possibly the greatest individual performance in Finals history.

The Verdict

The truth is, Jordan established the bar, and LeBron is the only player to have come close enough to make the debate legitimate.

That alone tells you all you need to know.