By Matthew Johnson, Sports Editor

Published in print Feb. 25, 2015

In the years following his skywalking, fadeaway shooting, tongue wagging days in Chicago for twelve seasons, Michael Jordan heavily influenced a collection of young basketball players who grew up as members of Generation Y. Tailoring their games to follow and eventually pass their idol who won six championships, many of these players failed to live up to the seemingly mythical tales of Jordan. In a group which features Grant Hill, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, only two players come to mind who deserve mention in a comparison with Michael Jordan. While one who seemingly modeled much of his game to Jordan, which was Kobe Bryant, there is another, LeBron James who can actually supplant Jordan in stature when his career is over.

A high school phenom from Akron, Ohio, in twelve seasons in the NBA, James, like Jordan, is the league’s brightest star for profound reason. Only at the age of 30, James has been elected to 11 All Star Games, 8 All-NBA First Teams, and 5 NBA All-Defensive Teams. The 6’8 small forward, who came to the NBA at the spry, Bambi-esque age of 18 has been the league’s MVP four times and has won two championships. Yet, credentials are not the reason why James can supplanted His Royal Airness’s place at the head of the all- time NBA table.

Similar in that James was heavily influenced by Michael’s theatrics on the parquet floor, but different in their styles, while Jordan in his prime was the league’s best scorer and its best defender, James is currently the league’s best passer and one of the game’ top scorers and defenders. As Jordan would routinely take games over with his sheer determination to drive to the basket and shutting down the opponent’s best player, LeBron can wear an opponent down similarly with an improved jumpshot and leading the charge of a defensive front which could cause a team see their lead disappear in two minutes.

Yet, in all the comparisons between the two,  Jordan, who was incredibly efficient, could  just be seen as an one dimensional scorer and defender, while James is the hybrid of Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson in terms of an offensive playmaker who can score and pass and someone who could guard each position on the floor effectively. 

Unfortunately, the debate will always end with championship rings. While I continually argue that in a team sport, rings should not be the end all be all for the greatness of a player, in this case, I will argue again why championships do not make a player.

In six trips to the NBA Finals, Jordan won six times, while LeBron has been to the NBA Finals so far five times and has only come away with two titles. As the most fervent Jordan fan will argue, LeBron has come up short on basketball’s largest stage, a stage which Jordan played his best. Yet, with basketball being a team sport unlike golf or tennis, superstars must rely heavily on teammates and coaches, and when comparing the two, Jordan had the better teams, making it easier for him to win titles. Jordan had one of the greatest defenders in Scottie Pippen, the league’s greatest coach in Phil Jackson, an All Star forward in the form of Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman, and a great knockdown shooter in either Steve Kerr or John Paxson.

For LeBron, outside of an aging Dwayne Wade, none of his teammates or coaches as a team would match up favorably to anyone of Jordan’s teams. Legends, with all their greatness, need help, and similar to LeBron, Jordan had trouble with attaining rings before he had help, going 1-10 in the playoffs before the arrival of Scottie Pippen. While James is likely never to save the world from the MonStars and team up with Bugs Bunny, if you could somehow disregard this accomplishment, James still has plenty of time to catch statistically all of Jordan’s feats and establish himself as the greatest player in NBA history.