sports
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M.J. or LeBron: Who’s the Greatest of All Time?
Bulls Writer (1987-present)
Co-host, First Things First
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Genesis
Response
Penultimate
Finale
May 14th, 2020
So MJ or LeBron, eh? This really isn’t a fair fight. It’s not exactly a version of Joe Louis’ Bum of the Month club of opponents. But LeBron also isn’t No. 2. After all, if it’s about stats, it’s Wilt. If it’s about championships, it’s Russell. If it’s about all around play, it’s Oscar. What even is singular about LeBron? If it’s about losing when the stakes are highest, OK, it’s LeBron with six of nine losses when his teams reached the NBA Finals.
OK, let’s start with current events: No one’s ever making a 10-part documentary about LeBron’s career. I wrote a book a few years ago titled, There is No Next. The point of the title was enough is enough. It wasn’t Grant Hill or Vince Carter or Kobe or Kevin Durant or any of the supposed nexts. Nor LeBron. We’re smothered with nightly ESPN statistics and highlights of someone with an all-time record of 28 straight games of at least 32 points not counting leap years. Enough. Like Reggie Miller told me for the book, Michael is beyond sport comparisons. Reggie said he’s on the sporting Mt. Rushmore with Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
LeBron is about basketball and he’s been great, one of the all-time greats, undoubtedly. Michael was among the very, very rare few in sports who influenced and changed society. The shoes, the shaved head, the long shorts, the earrings for men. The international reach, society’s embrace of a black man as its hero and idol. They wanted to be like Mike. No one wants to be like LeBron because, for one thing, they can’t. His excellence is more associated with his unusual size, like Wilt. Who famously complained once, “Everyone hates Goliath.” LeBron is certainly divisive. Be difficult to find anyone who ever said Jordan is. Other than maybe Isiah Thomas or Jerry Krause.
We’ve never seen anyone LeBron’s size play with that grace and efficiency. But no one really can aspire to that because LeBron’s impact is as much his physical characteristics. Like with Wilt’s. LeBron’s the size of Karl Malone playing like John Stockton. Michael, of course, is tall, about 6-6 and weighed about 215 in his prime. But that’s about average among his peers. You can dream to be like Mike. But then he became unique the way he combined the excellence in the game—winning to challenge Russell and scoring to rival Wilt—and then transcended the game with his worldwide appeal and impact in marketing, fashion, dreams and hopes. There’s never been anyone like Michael Jordan to simultaneously reach such heights on and off the basketball court. There’s really no debate. The end.
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