Lebron vs Michael – Who Is The GOAT?

The question that has been circling around the NBA community for years, Who is the GOAT? Over the past decade, only two people have been put into this discussion, Lebron James and Michael Jordan. Today I will be giving a simple argument into which one of these guys is truly the GOAT.

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These are the categories that I will be grading these two players on. If I feel like a player wins one category, they get a point. Most points at the end wins the GOAT argument. The categories are, in no particular order of importance:
Accomplishments
Longevity
Winning
Statistics
The ‘Eye Test’

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Accomplishments

Throughout their careers, Lebron and Jordan have both become some of the most decorated athletes of all time, and some of the most decorated in the world of sports.

Michael Jordan had 5 Regular Season MVP’s, and Lebron has 4.
Jordan had 6 Finals MVP’s, and Lebron had 3.
Jordan had led the league in scoring 10 times, Lebron has done it 1 time.
Jordan had made 9 All Defensive Teams, and Lebron had made 6.
Lebron has 16 All-Star Appearances, and Jordan had 14.

The reason that James has more All-Star Appearances than Michael is largely in part to him playing more seasons than Jordan.

In his career, not counting major injuries or retirement, Jordan had played 13 seasons in the NBA, and Lebron has played 17. So, with Jordan having more accomplishments than Lebron in a smaller span of time makes it all the more impressive.

So, I think that this category is very easily going to go to Michael Jordan.
MJ- 1 Lebron – 0

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Longevity

The next category is Longevity, or who has had more time on top of their games and the league.

Just like in the last category, this one has a clean winner, Lebron James.

James has played 17 seasons to Michael’s 13. James has also spent a much longer time on top of the league than Jordan did.

Jordan had about 10 years on his peak, and Lebron has had 16 years, and this number will continue to go up as his career continues.

Lebron is also one of the most durable athletes. He has been able to not sustain many major injuries for most of his career, except for 2018-19 when he had a groin injury.

But, to the people who say Lebron is SO much more durable than MJ was, is an exaggeration.

Jordan played at least 80 regular season games 11 times in his career, and also playing in all 82 games 9 times, which is an incredible feat.

Compare that to Lebron who has played in at least 80 regular season games only twice, and only playing the full 82 games once.

So, Jordan and Lebron were both very durable players, but Lebron has sustained his level of excellence for a much longer time period than Michael did.
MJ – 1 Lebron – 1

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Winning

Michael Jordan won 6 championships during his playing days, and Lebron had 3 so far.

Jordan was a perfect 6-0 in the Finals, and Lebron is 3-6. Some people say that Lebron making it to 9 Finals, and 8 Finals in a row is very impressive, lets not forget that making it to the Finals is not even in the same ballpark as winning the title.

The feeling that you get when you lose is heart wrenching, to the fans and especially to the players. So, to say that Lebron making it to the Finals 9 times, and losing 6 times is an accomplishment, they’re wrong.

And, in the words of Herm Edwards, “You play to win the game.”

In 6 Finals appearances, Jordan had amassed a record of 24-11. Lebron, a record of 18-31 in 9 finals appearances.

Lebron’s record is the way that it is because of the 6 Finals losses he has, 4 of them his team were not competitive in. He was been swept twice, and he has lost in 5 games twice as well.

Now, an argument that Lebron fans have is that Lebron faced tougher teams than Michael did or Michael didn’t play the Warriors for 4 straight years. Yet, these same fans criticize Jordan for losing the Celtics early in his career. Those Celtics teams, the one in 1986 particularly, had 5 Hall of Famers and throughout the 80s they were the best team in the Eastern Conference.

But, Lebron fans are missing a key piece of information. Most of the years that Lebron made it to Finals, his own conference had weak opponents. During Lebron’s tenure in the East, the East was not as good as the West, and James had easy runs into the NBA Finals.

But, when Jordan was playing the East was a formidable conference and was considered the best conference in the NBA. Jordan had to play the Bad Boy Pistons, Patrick Ewing and the Knicks, the Shaq/Penny led Magic, and Reggie Miller and the Pacers.

Even if you still want to say Lebron had tougher opponents, fine. But, lets not over exaggerate. In his career, Lebron’s finals opponents have had an average win total of 60.8. Michael Jordan’s opponents in the Finals had a win average of 61.2.

So, both players have faced very good and tough competition throughout their careers, and they have each found different amounts of success.

Sure, Jordan never faced those Warriors teams for 4 years or any other juggernaut, but put this in perspective. Jordan never had to face a juggernaut, because he was the juggernaut. Jordan and his Bulls were the team winning 60-70 games each season. They were the team with a target on their back every year.

And, as the 2016 Warriors showed us, it’s not easy to win with a target on your back. As great as those Warrior teams were, they never won 3 championships in a row. Jordan and his Bulls did it, twice.

So the argument for this now becomes, what is more impressive, beating the juggernaut like Lebron, or being the juggernaut like Michael?

Or, which is more impressive? Lebron beating the juggernaut 1/4 times that he has faced them, or Jordan being the juggernaut and winning 6 titles in 8 seasons like Jordan did?

Sure, Lebron beating the 73-9 Warriors is the greatest accomplishment of his career, but other underdog teams have won in the Finals, like the 2004 Pistons against the Lakers.

But, Jordan won 6 titles in 8 years, something that has only been done by Bill Russell and the Celtics during the ’60s. But, Russell and the Celtics had far fewer playoff rounds, and there were only around 10 teams in the NBA during that time.

And, Jordan has done something that most people will never accomplish. He won 25 of 26 playoff series in a row. In the Olympic stage, he has never won anything but Gold, and he won a National Championship in college.

So, after all of this, I think that we can give the winning, to Michael Jordan.
MJ – 2 Lebron – 1

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Statistics

This one is a tough one. It is tough to see who is statistically better. Jordan and Lebron played in different eras, under different rules, and at different positions.

One way of looking at it is going through the 8 traditional statistics of basketball, which are:
Points
Assists
Rebounds
Steals
Blocks
FG%
FT%
Turnovers

We will focus on the per game stats for all of these categories as if we focused on cumulative totals for all of these categories, that would be based more on longevity, which Lebron has already won.

Here are Michael Jordan’s 8 traditional stats:
30.1 Points
5.3 Assists
6.2 Rebounds
2.3 Steals
0.83 Blocks
49.7% FG
83.5% FT
2.7 Turnovers.

Here are Lebron’s:
27.1 Points
7.4 Assists
7.4 Rebounds
1.6 Steals
0.76 Blocks
50.4% FG
73.5% FT
3.5 Turnovers

At first, you see that Jordan is ahead of Lebron in points, steals, blocks, FT% and has less turnovers. So, Lebron leads in assists, rebounds, and FG%.

But, just based off of this, this is misleading into who is the GOAT. Instead, we will look to advanced stats.

Advanced Stats

PER

We will start with the most known advanced stat, PER.

Jordan has led the league in PER 7 times, and he has been top 3 in the league 10 times, both of which are more than Lebron.

In the regular season, Jordan had a PER of 27.9, which is the highest all time.

In the playoffs, Jordan again has the highest PER average, with 28.6.

So, Jordan has beaten Lebron is every single PER stat so far.

Win Shares

Jordan has led the league in win shares 8 times, and he has been top 3 11 times, both of which are more than Lebron.

In win shares per 48 minutes in the regular season, Jordan has the highest all time with 0.2505.

In win shares per 48 minutes in the player, Jordan again has the highest all time with 0.2553.

So, once again, Jordan leads all the win share categories.

Box Plus Minus

Box Plus-Minus is another advanced stat that can help us in this debate. Lebron was leading Jordan in this category. But after the 2017 season, in which Russell Westbrook had the greatest single-season in terms of box plus-minus and by a wide margin, the architect of this statistic realized it was flawed. So, he made some changes to improve his formula.

Now, after those changes, Michael has led the league 10 times, and he has been top 3 11 times, both of which are more than Lebron.

Jordan had a 9.22 box plus minus in the regular season, which is the highest of all time.

Jordan is also 1st in the playoffs all time with a box plus minus to 11.14.

So, again Jordan is on top.

Value Over Replacement Player (VORP)

Both James and Jordan have led the league 9 times, and Lebron has been top 3 13 times.

Lebron has a 133.17 in the regular season, which is the highest all time.

In the playoffs, Lebron has a 30.81, which is again the highest of all time.

So, on the surface, Lebron has this category won.

But, VORP is a cumulative stat, which we said we would not be counting.

But, according to VORP, Jordan has 6 of the 9 greatest individual seasons ever played.

And, if you had VORP on a per game basis, in the regular season Jordan has a 0.1083, which is the highest of all time.

In the playoffs Jordan has a 0.1382, which is again the highest of all time.

So, not only does Jordan beat Lebron is all of these categories, he is also 1st all time in all of them as well.

Gamescore

Gamescore is a lesser-known stat, but it is a very telling one. This one measures a player’s individual game with a score. While this won’t say who has the best career, it will tell us who has had the greater games, and how many of them.

Of the 100 highest Gamescores of all time, Jordan has 19. That is almost 20% of the greatest games, all with Michael Jordan. This also means that 1 out of every 5 of the greatest games in the last 4 decades belongs to Michael Jordan. Jordan also has the highest Gamescore of all time, with his 69 points and 18 rebounds game in 1990 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Lebron James has only had 3 of the top 100 Gamescores.

When talking about the GOAT, Nick Wright is often saying, “If you had to choose one player to save humanity, who would it be?” Well, after all these stats, it is obvious to see that Jordan is dominant in all these stats.

So, just to make you guys remember, Jordan is #1 all time in both the regular season and the playoffs in PER, Win Shares per 48, Box Plus Minus and VORP/Game. All of this, goes to MJ.

But, back to where we all started. Back to the 8 traditional stats of basketball. But this time, with context.

Traditional Stats W/ Context

With this context, we will be comparing these two players to others who played the same position, and where they rank. First, we will start with Lebron James.

Among other small forwards who have played 500 games:
James is 2nd in points
1st in Assists
12th in Rebounds
9th in Steals
17th in Blocks
17th in FG%
107th in FT% (min 1500 FTA)

Now, lets look at Michael Jordan.

Among other shooting guards who have played 500 games:
Jordan is 1st in points
4th in Assists
3rd in Rebounds
3rd in Steals
3rd in Blocks
9th in FG%
34th in FT% (min 1500 FTA)

As you can see, Jordan is one of the greatest SG among his peers, and while Lebron is great as well, Jordan is near the top in every single of these categories among others at his position.

So, weather we are comparing basic stats or advanced stats, it is clear that Michael is better in this category
MJ – 3 Lebron – 1

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The ‘Eye Test’

Jordan

To clarify, the eye test is not who is faster, stronger, or who jumps higher, because this is not a track meet. What I mean by the eye test is if you sat an average NBA fan in front of a TV to watch a player in action, what could they notice about what the player is good at, and what they are not good at.

What you can notice about Jordan is that he was the best offensive player in the game. He was one of the best defenders in the game. He had the best mid-range game. He was the best finisher at the rim. He had the best post up game even though he was a guard and not a center. He was on the most clutch player, if not the most. He was the fiercest competitor on the court. He had the best work ethic and worked harder than anybody. And, among the other NBA greats of his time, he was the greatest winner.

To be great at any one of those things is very impressive. But, to be the best at all of them, or in the top-2, is near impossible. so, to sum it up, Jordan had no major weaknesses in his game. And, to all the people who say Jordan was a bad 3-point shooter, here are some facts for you.

In his era, teams shot about 10 3’s a game. Jordan shot about 33% from 3 in his career. If you’re just going by percentages, Lebron is a tad bit better than Jordan. But in the 90s, the average player shot 33% from 3, meaning Jordan was not good or bad, he was average.

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Lebron

But, back to Lebron and the eye test. Unlike Jordan, who was no major weaknesses in his game, Lebron has a few.

For how much Lebron drives to the basket, he is a bad free-throw shooter. While the percentages say that he is not that bad of a free throw shooter, but sometimes in the clutch, James has been known to miss pivotal free throws. Many people point out that James does not attack the rim as much late in games because of his bad free-throw shooting.

Jordan, was never afraid of contact and was a solid free throw shooter his entire career.

Another thing that is a weakness in Lebron James’s game is defense or lack thereof. In his days with the Miami Heat, James was a great defender, I will give him credit. He was selected to many defensive teams in the early 2010s. But, recently, James has been a liability on defense. If you look at some clips from the 2018-19 season, James looks disinterested, and if that is what you were looking at for Lebron James’s defense, you would say that we was a bad defender.

For the people who say Lebron can guard every position, this might be true, but here is a question for you. If Lebron is so good at guarding everybody, then in 2009 would you have him on Dwight Howard against the Magic? Or how about Kevin Garnett on the Celtics? Sure, James is capable of guarding them, but not for the whole game. And we have never seen James on a center for long periods of time. Sure, sometimes during the flow of the game, you get switched onto a big. This happens. But for an entire quarter, half, or game, we have not seen Lebron using that defensive versatility.

With Jordan on defense, he is the only guard in NBA history to rank in the top 5 of both steals and blocks. Jordan was a great defensive player and he was selected to All-Defensive Teams throughout the 90s, even in 1998 when people considered him to be washed up and old.

Now, if you say that James has gotten worse on defense because of his offensive burden, then let’s compare that to Jordan. Jordan was a great offensive player and defensive player his entire career. He never let anybody be better than him. He just wanted to be the best no matter what. Lebron is not even close to a great defender at this stage in his career, while Jordan was still very good at the age of 34 in 1998.

The 3rd and final eye test weakness to James is that he is not a great shooter from anywhere. This is a pretty big flaw for somebody contending to be the GOAT. James’s field goal percentage is only above 50% because most of his shots come from 0-3 feet. It’s not because he is this all-around threat, no he is just a paint beast. Jordan was also a great finisher, but lots of his shots came from the outside as well, meaning that Jordan took tougher shots and still shot around 50%. So just because James has a better FG%, does not mean he is the better shooter.

Back to James and his shooting. Outside of 0-3 feet, James has shot 37.5% from that range in the regular season. In the playoffs, this number dips to 35.9%.

So, to sum up the eye test. Michael Jordan had no real flaws in his game. But, Lebron James has a few.
MJ – 4 Lebron -1

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So ladies and gentlemen, after the dust has settled and numbers have been crunched, Michael Jordan is the GOAT. Jordan had more accomplishments in his career than Lebron. He is statistically the greatest player ever, leading NBA History in so many categories. Jordan was also a much better than James and anybody else who played in his time. And, Jordan had no major weaknesses in his game. He could score from anywhere, defend at a high level, he could do it all. His competitive drive separates him from the rest of the pack, and he is on a level that nobody will ever touch.

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But, what do you think? Is MJ really the GOAT? If not, who is? Leave all of your GOAT comments down below.

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