Michael Jordan VS Lebron James

Jordan or LeBron ?

  • Michael Jordan

  • LeBron James


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Abizzz

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Jordan for me.

But I have a friend who's from Akron (Lebrons hometown) who's been annoying me about how good James is since he was about 15 years old... so I'm a bit biased.
 

Blatzo

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Thrrad title should be changed to "Katie Price or Peter Andre?"
 

swooshboy

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I cannot wait for the upcoming 10 part documentary on MJ and the Bulls final championship season:

"The Last Dance," a 10-part documentary series will chronicle Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls, one of the greatest icons and most successful dynasties in sports history, will debut on ESPN in 2020.


I have all the Jordan DVDs, all the books about him but this documentary is going to be something else :)
 

adexkola

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LeBron has a better first touch though.
No relevancy in basketball

Jordan won all the finals he played.

Lebron bit the dust vs Curry too many times.
That's always been a bad and simplistic metric.

And it's fair to say that Jordan never, in the finals, met a team as good as the Warriors.
 

Carolina Red

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Let’s not forget, after his father was murdered, MJ played baseball for two years, then came back and did 3 in a row again.
 

swooshboy

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No relevancy in basketball



That's always been a bad and simplistic metric.

And it's fair to say that Jordan never, in the finals, met a team as good as the Warriors.
Jordan beat the Lakers (with Magic), the Blazers (with Clyde), the Sun's (with Barkley) then the Sonics (with Payton and Kemp) and the Jazz twice (with Stockton and Malone) in the finals.

Also to even get there, he had to get through an incredibly tough Pistons team (that had one back to back championships) and was one of the toughest and most physical teams ever, and then the Knicks who were built in a similar vein.
 

Casanova85

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Jordan beat the Lakers (with Magic), the Blazers (with Clyde), the Sun's (with Barkley) then the Sonics (with Payton and Kemp) and the Jazz twice (with Stockton and Malone) in the finals.

Also to even get there, he had to get through an incredibly tough Pistons team (that had one back to back championships) and was one of the toughest and most physical teams ever, and then the Knicks who were built in a similar vein.
Thank you. This relatively recent myth that Jordan faced easy teams... BS! '80s and '90s basketball was already a sport that had reached the pinnacle.
 

Carolina Red

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Jordan beat the Lakers (with Magic), the Blazers (with Clyde), the Sun's (with Barkley) then the Sonics (with Payton and Kemp) and the Jazz twice (with Stockton and Malone) in the finals.

Also to even get there, he had to get through an incredibly tough Pistons team (that had one back to back championships) and was one of the toughest and most physical teams ever, and then the Knicks who were built in a similar vein.
Heyyyy. Tell em!
 

Casanova85

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What's with the stupid nonsense that the '10s Warriors are the best NBA team of all time?

Not even close to Duncan's Spurs (relatively recent valid example).
 

MJJ

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Jordan beat the Lakers (with Magic), the Blazers (with Clyde), the Sun's (with Barkley) then the Sonics (with Payton and Kemp) and the Jazz twice (with Stockton and Malone) in the finals.

Also to even get there, he had to get through an incredibly tough Pistons team (that had one back to back championships) and was one of the toughest and most physical teams ever, and then the Knicks who were built in a similar vein.
Magic was 32 and the showtime lakers never made the finals after that I think. That was pretty much an ageing team on its way out.
 

Carolina Red

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Jordan consistently faced tougher playoff competition...
Jordan’s Bulls defeated seven 60+ win teams (a record for a dynasty team in a decade) and 20 teams that had between 50-59 wins.

27 of the 37 playoff opponents Jordan faced had over 50 wins, while 18 of LeBron’s opponents (out of 37) had under 50 wins.
 

adexkola

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Utah Jazz '90s destroys '10s Warriors.
:lol: have a good day.

Jordan beat the Lakers (with Magic), the Blazers (with Clyde), the Sun's (with Barkley) then the Sonics (with Payton and Kemp) and the Jazz twice (with Stockton and Malone) in the finals.

Also to even get there, he had to get through an incredibly tough Pistons team (that had one back to back championships) and was one of the toughest and most physical teams ever, and then the Knicks who were built in a similar vein.
Those teams were great. They weren't better than the Warriors.

The only teams in that era that have a legitimate argument are the Bad Boy Pistons, and Olajuwon's Rockets (that MJ conveniently ducked). All the others... Just no.

Jordan is still the better player by far. But it's not because he won every final he got to. Pippen won every final he got to as well. Shit, so did DeShaun Stevenson.
 

swooshboy

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Pat Riley referred to Jordan as "an assassin in shorts" and that is spot on. In the 1998 Finals, a lot of people had the Jazz as favourites, but I remember one commentator saying "for the Jazz to win, that means they have to come and take the championship away from Jordan...and I don't think any team is capable of that".

This video is well worth a watch - it is the final minute of MJs final game as a Bull against the Jazz in the 1998 finals.

He hits 2 free throws with less than a minute to go to tie the game at 83-83.

Stockton then hits a 3 pointer to put them up by 3 points 83-86. So the Bulls are down by 4 with 40 seconds left - so they need make their first score very quickly.

Jordan subsequently takes the ball from the inbound and scores a layup within 4 seconds - to bring them to within 1 point 85-86.

The Jazz take it downcourt and Jordan strips the ball from Malone and steals the ball with 20 seconds left.

He then creates space and hits his shot to put them up by one point with less than 5 seconds to go 87-86

Even in a career of highlights and achievements, that is such an incredible end and sums up him doing whatever it takes to win.

 

swooshboy

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:lol: have a good day.



Those teams were great. They weren't better than the Warriors.

The only teams in that era that have a legitimate argument are the Bad Boy Pistons, and Olajuwon's Rockets (that MJ conveniently ducked). All the others... Just no.

Jordan is still the better player by far. But it's not because he won every final he got to. Pippen won every final he got to as well. Shit, so did DeShaun Stevenson.
:lol: Yes, because he was known for backing down from a challenge...
 

Casanova85

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:lol: have a good day.



Those teams were great. They weren't better than the Warriors.

The only teams in that era that have a legitimate argument are the Bad Boy Pistons, and Olajuwon's Rockets (that MJ conveniently ducked). All the others... Just no.

Jordan is still the better player by far. But it's not because he won every final he got to. Pippen won every final he got to as well. Shit, so did DeShaun Stevenson.
Your precious Warriors would lose every final vs 99-14 Spurs.
 

adexkola

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Can someone please tell @Casanova85 that I'm not a Warriors fan? @Sarni or @charlton66 probably.

:lol: Yes, because he was known for backing down from a challenge...
He wasn't. He's also expressed doubt that the first iteration of the Bulls team could make it past Olajuwon and the Rockets. They were that good.
 

adexkola

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Let’s not forget, after his father was murdered, MJ played baseball for two years, then came back and did 3 in a row again.
My uncle will go to his grave believing that MJ got run out the league the first time by Stern because of gambling problems.

He also thinks the Flu game wasn't a flu, but a hangover.
 

elmo

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No relevancy in basketball



That's always been a bad and simplistic metric.

And it's fair to say that Jordan never, in the finals, met a team as good as the Warriors.
That's because MJ made the Bulls the Warriors of that time. LeBron couldn't even do it with 2 other superstars on his team.
 

adexkola

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That's because MJ made the Bulls the Warriors of that time. LeBron couldn't even do it with 2 other superstars on his team.
For feck sakes, I'm not arguing that Jordan is inferior to LeBron. (Although let's not pretend like Pippen and Rodman were mediocre)

I'm saying that, saying "LeBron couldn't get it done against Curry" is an asinine statement. There are numerous legitimate criticisms to throw at LeBron, like his performance in the finals against the Mavericks, or his performance against Boston before he left the Cavs the first time. But no, not holding his 1-3 record in the finals against the Warriors against him, the same way I can't hold his sweep at the hands of the Spurs in 07 against him
 

elmo

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Jordan fanboys will of course say Jordan but he was always carried by his Xavi and Iniesta whereas Lebron has gone to different teams and won games by himself. Lebron has also won tournaments with that national team. Jordan often disappears on the big stage.
feck right off, Jordan won the Olympics gold twice. Once as a college player and another as a professional.

LeBron got a fecking bronze in his first Olympics. With a team filled with NBA players.
 

swooshboy

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On a side note - I love this clip about MJ and Pippen guarding Kukoc when the USA Dream Team met Croatia in the 1992 Olympics - they both had a grudge against Kukoc (through no fault of his own) and wanted to make sure they destroyed him during the game


I love Pip's line: "We wanted to go guard him on the bench".
 

Carolina Red

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My uncle will go to his grave believing that MJ got run out the league the first time by Stern because of gambling problems.

He also thinks the Flu game wasn't a flu, but a hangover.
There’s always gonna be the gambling theory... but there were a lot of things that went into him playing baseball then. I really don’t believe one of them was the Houston Rockets.