Before June 26, 2003, there was no real argument. Basketball had always been dominated by force, considered to be the greatest of all time since his elite finals runs from 1991-93 and 1996-98. Who ever could have imagined that, over 20 years later, his biggest competitor would be a kid drafted out of high school with a famous picture looking chubby and wearing glasses and a sweater less than 10 years prior. A very important question that can be posed is, Why is the argument of the greatest player in one of America’s big-four sports between a kid who got cut his sophomore year of high school that was previously considered the best possible player or a kid who started playing in the NBA at only 18 years old. The more important, age-old, real question to answer from this is: who is the real GOAT of basketball: Lebron James or Michael Jordan? 

Someone who may not be too educated on basketball may just assume it is Jordan because of his 6-0 finals record, or James because of his longevity and amazing playoff highlights. To truly analyze this debate, you must look at all the different angles of who is truly superior. The best way to truly compare the two would be to define what the GOAT really is. To me, the GOAT should be the player who had the greatest career numbers and the greatest impact on the teams in which he played for and the era he played during. If you filter by only one category, almost anyone could be the GOAT. This broader perspective and definition is the best way to attack this in my mind.  

Jordan is the favorite of any Gen X person who grew up on the tail end of Magic vs Bird and the bad boy Pistons. This along with Jordan’s prime competition, Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing of his “Space Jam” movie cast, Hakeem the Dream, Clyde the Glide, Karl Malone and John Stockton, and Shaq and Penny Hardaway. Jordan headlined many major basketball events like the 1992 “Dream Team,” which was during a summer in between his first of two “3-peats” (championship titles in 3 consecutive seasons). He has some truly amazing standout stats, including every accolade imaginable, six championship rings where he earned every Finals MVP,  the Rookie of the Year award, five regular season MVP’s, a Defensive Player of the Year award, 10 regular season scoring titles, 10 first team all-NBA selections and 14 all-star games. 

This resume looks almost impossible to beat at first glance, but if you dive into the accomplishments of James, the argument becomes much closer than you may think

James was raised by a single mother, Gloria James. He started playing organized basketball extremely late, only during his fifth grade year. From there, he went on to make varsity as a freshman, averaging 18-6 and leading St. Vincent-St. Mary’s to a state championship. James was one of the last players to skip high school to go straight to the league, as a new rule was implemented blocking this in 2005. Lebron started his career in Cleveland, but later left and went to the Miami Heat, after a famous press conference known as “The Decision” where James decided to sign a contract with the Heat as a free agent. While in Miami, James started his dominant run, reaching nine NBA finals in the span of 10 years, capped off with wins in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2020. LeBron also collected four MVPs, four Finals MVPs, one scoring title, and he leads the NBA all-time in points, and is top 10 all-time in assists, triple-doubles and steals. James was also the youngest player ever to reach just about every scoring milestone, becoming the youngest to 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000 points. LeBron has totaled 42,184 points, and is still counting going into his 22nd season in the league

From this, the scale still seems tilted towards Jordan, but while numbers tell a story, they are also a double-edged sword. 

Let’s take a look at one of Jordan’s younger years, 1988, where he won the DPOY. While this is one of the most impressive feats ever, as Jordan is the only guard to ever win this award, it may not be as it seems. In an article in “Sports Illustrated” magazine written by Tom Dierberger and published on June 20, 2024, the reporter dives into a deep analysis of this season. While quoting data from Yahoo analyst Tom Haberstroh, Dierberger provides stats comparing Jordan’s home vs away statistics.  “He averaged 5.5 ‘stocks’ (steals and blocks) per 36 minutes at home and just 3.02 stocks per 36 minutes on the road.” Dierberger said. This shows either a clear inflation of Jordan’s stats at home or a deflation of his stats on the road. As a third-year player, it seems unlikely that he would already be hated enough to have opposing bookkeepers making him seem significantly worse, and even less likely that it was a consensus between keepers across the league. This could completely discredit Jordan’s one major accomplishment he can hold over James.

Another comparison of the two that would favor Jordan is finals record. There are three major flaws with this entire argument. First, Jordan’s career. He may have gone 6-0 in the finals compared to Lebron’s 4-6 across his career. This would be the outlier, the one statistic needed in the argument… if Jordan’s career was six years long. The harsh truth is that his career was 15 years long, not six, meaning he only reached the finals in 40% of his years in the NBA. This isn’t awful, as James reached the finals 10 times in 21 years (only 47.6 percent). However, Jordan won a total of 10 playoff series in the years he did not reach the finals. Only 10 series wins in nine years. Again, compared to James’s seven series wins in seven years, it’s not a massive difference. This, of course, leaves out the years James didn’t even reach the postseason, a feat Jordan accomplished every single year he played. Point to all the Jordan fans.

Another key statistic people miss about Jordan’s finals resume is his competition. During the six-year span in which Jordan won the finals, he only played against six of the 30 top players of all time, according to a list made by complex.com. LeBron had five in his four championship years, a small jump up. As for players on the team that made the list, Jordan had Scottie Pippen all six years. James only had Dwayne Wade for two, and the other two rings were without another player on this list. To put it into even more perspective, when Jordan first left the Bulls in 1994 to pursue baseball, the Bulls had a record of 55-27. The first year the Cavaliers spent without James when he moved to the Lakers the Cavaliers went 19-63. For anyone who believed that James built superteams and only played when the conditions were perfect for him to win, the numbers can speak for themselves.

The final statistic to compare is overall help on the rosters. I went into this briefly when talking about top 30 players of all time, but I want to elaborate more on full starting lineups. Let’s take the 1992 Bulls, one of Jordan’s worst championship winning teams ever. The starting lineup consisted of Jordan, Pippen, Horace Grand, Bill Cartwright and John Paxson, with a rookie Tony Kukoc on the bench. The worst roster that James took to a finals was clearly his 2018 Cavs team. While he was unable to get the job done, it is very understandable once you view the roster he was working with. James, an aging Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith and George Hill were the starters, with Kyle Korver as the notable off the bench. Comparing the two rosters, almost anyone in their right mind would take the Bulls in a seven game series between the two. 2018 James is sometimes considered the most dominant playoff performance of all time, and for good reason. Taking the team he was working with as far as he did while averaging nearly a triple double throughout the postseason is historic, and, even with its popularity, underappreciated. You could argue as well for a James team that actually won a championship. Let’s take the 2019-20 Lakers as his worst championship winning team. The starters were James, Anthony Davis, Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Javale McGee, with the most notable bench player being Alex Caruso. Again, put this team up against the ‘92 Bulls and it looks like the Bulls sweep. Once again, this has to partially disprove the James-super-team theory.

There is still plenty of hope to anyone arguing on Jordan’s account, as he was a very, very solid player. His best attribute was his clear scoring ability. In the movie “Air” (2023) it is revealed that, back in his college days at North Carolina, Jordan was still the most trusted scorer. Sonny Vaccaro (played by Matt Damon) presents to his colleagues how other players for North Carolina were purely decoys, and the play was drawn up for Jordan alone. Jordan sank the shot, eventually sealing the national championship for North Carolina. Jordan kept this pure scoring ability throughout his NBA career, amassing 10 scoring titles in just 15 seasons in the league. Jordan put up crazy scoring numbers during his prime, averaging 37.1 points during the 1986-87 season. Jordan kept this high caliber scoring ability, averaging 30.1 points during the regular season for his career, and 33.5 for his career during the playoffs, showing his true ability to put the ball in the basket. This clearly passes James, who has averaged 27.3 points per game for his regular season career and 28.7 points for his playoff career. 

The only issue with this argument in the favor of Jordan would be the efficiency in which these two scored the ball. Jordan, while having incredible scoring numbers, did this averaging 22.9 shots per game during the regular season, and 23.9 during the playoffs. This put Jordan’s shooting percentage for his career at 49.7 for the regular season, and 48.7 for the postseason. These are still truly amazing numbers for a guard, but not quite as impressive as before. James on the other hand has averaged 19.5 shots per game in the regular season and 20.5 per game in the postseason. This puts his career field goal percentage at 50.5 percent for the regular season, and 49.4 in the post season. Clearly, James edges out Jordan on overall efficiency during his career, but Jordan has a dominant stance on quantity of scoring per game. There is no clear standout between the two here.

Now towards the stats that would obviously favor James. While Jordan may be one of the greatest of all time as a scorer, James appears to be much more multifaceted. For his career, Jordan averaged 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. This pales in comparison to James, with 7.5 and 7.4 in these categories respectively. In Jordan’s best seasons ever, he still only had 8.0 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game, barely above James’s career averages. James blew past this during his best runs, with 8.6 rebounds and 10.2  assists in his career high seasons. James takes non-scoring stats by a landslide.

The argument is always that Jordan is a better all-around playoff player compared to James, and that James couldn’t finish. This is, in fact, the complete opposite. To go back to comparing stats from these three major categories, points, rebounds and assists (PRA), you can look at playoff highs for PRA and compare the two. For Jordan, it was always solid, and he posted an impressive 45.55 career playoff PRA. This does top the career average for James, which sits at 44.8. For the peak playoff runs of these two, Jordan mustered up an unbelievable 50.5 PRA during his peak playoff run. Shockingly, James was able to top this, posting a 52.1 PRA during his dominant 2018 playoff run. The average category tilts in Jordan’s favor while the peak tips towards James. 

Another important argument to look at would be what these two were able to accomplish for their teams and in a locker room setting. Jordan brought a Bulls franchise that had never won a championship to six titles over his career. He put the NBA mainstream and even created a sneaker line that is still the most sought-after shoe to this day. James led the Heat to back-to-back titles and their second and third overall, returned to Cleveland and led them to their only title, then bounced over to the Lakers and won them their first title in 10 years, a very long drought for such a historically dominant team. Both of these are extremely impressive overall career accolades. 

To look into other impacts these two might have had, you have to view the locker room environment in the teams they played for. Scottie Pippen is arguably Jordan’s most famous teammate ever. However, the one who seemed to have known Jordan the best and been through it all with him chastised him while speaking on a podcast of one of his former teammates, referring to Jordan as a “horrible player” and saying, “[h]e was horrible to play with. It was all 1-on-1, shooting bad shots.” The more shocking part from what Pippen said was his elaborate praise for James, saying, “LeBron will be the greatest statistical guy to ever play the game of basketball,” Pippen said. “And there’s no comparison to him. None. So does that make him the greatest player to ever play the game?” This is cold evidence that James may be superior to Jordan in almost every aspect of the game.

There are other people who need to be considered for Jordan’s overall locker room demeanor. Steve Kerr is one of Jordan’s other famous teammates, and has now gone on to coach the Golden State Warriors along with the 2024 USA summer olympic team. Kerr has only ever had good things to say in regard to Jordan. In an article on basketballnetwork.net, Kerr shared his thoughts on Jordan if he played in today’s era. “Assuming he was in his prime playing today,” Kerr said, “I have no doubt he would have shot one million three-pointers in practice and become a better three-point shooter and a more high volume three-point shooter.” This works in Jordan’s favor, considering one of the most knowledgeable basketball minds of the modern era believes in his talents.

There are arguments against James as well, saying his social media influence and weight he brings on teams is horrible for a basketball environment. Over the past five years since he became a Laker, people have criticized James for being a second general manager to the franchise. There is the conception that James is running the Lakers organization, and that whatever he wants has to happen. While there are many points that strongly support this thought, it is still hard for most people to believe or confirm. There is some discredit to him, as most believe that the only reason Bronny James, Lebron’s son, reached the NBA and the Lakers organization was because of his father. 

Overall, there are so many arguments for and against both GOATs and who deserves the title over the other. At the end of the day, the league is shifting in huge ways and stars are entering from all over the world. While I don’t believe that he will be the GOAT forever, James has the upper hand on Jordan and is the GOAT of basketball right now.