By Terrence Hinds, Staff Writer

Published in print Feb. 25, 2015

Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time bar none. I am not debating this; I am just stating facts. His game-changing athleticism, his mentality to beat his opponent into the dirt and then some, his marketability, and his play-making skills are unmatched throughout the history of the NBA.

Now Jordan is not head and shoulders above any player in history. There are some players who we like to compare to Michael Jordan. Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird are some of the players that are normally brought up in the same breath as “His Airness”.

Now the younger generation has decided to add another name to the conversation of the greatest player of all time, Lebron James.

And they would be correct adding his name since James is simply a machine. If you were to design the perfect physique for a basketball player you would design LeBron.

At 6’8 and 260 pounds of pure muscle, James is still just as fast as any player from baseline to baseline in the league, and he is probably stronger than 80% of the rest of the players in the NBA.

With all that being said James is no Jordan and never will be, and there are a number of reasons why.

I understand that LeBron is still a number of years away from retirement and that he could still possibly win more than Jordan. But, at this time, the fact remains he trails his idol heavily. Jordan played in six NBA finals during his career and remains perfect in all of them, not to mention that he got Finals MVP in each of them. James is currently 2-3 in the Finals, and honestly he should be 1-4 , but sharp shooter Ray Allen saved him against the San Antonio Spurs in 2013. For the simple fact that James will never be perfect in championships immediately puts him a class below Jordan, unless he can win five or six more.

As we all know James took his “talents to South Beach” and burned his hometown Cavalier fans. He joined Dwayne Wade’s team in Miami along with Chris Bosh to form “The Big Three.” While  in comparison, Michael Jordan never left the Chicago Bulls and I doubt he ever would have. Even when things were roughest for Jordan while he was battling the Detroit Pistons in the late 1980s, I doubt he ever once thought that he should leave his team and try to join them. It is just not how he was wired. Jordan wanted to beat the Pistons, not join them. James has still yet to bring a championship to the team that originally drafted him number one overall. 

LeBron on his resume, has eight All-NBA First Team Selections, five All-Defensive first Team selections, four MVP awards (in 5 years), 11 selections to the All-Star game, and a pair of championship rings. That’s pretty incredible, but, it just does not quite reach Jordan’s accolades. LeBron’s has accomplished all his feats in 12 seasons, and when Jordan was at that same point, he had taken two years off in order to cope with the murder of his father.  In Jordan’s 11th season when comparing, it was the 1996 season when the Bulls ran rampant over everyone, becoming the first team in NBA history to win 70 games, and Jordan was still improving.

Jordan, in 1996, was a 10-time All-Star, 8-time All-NBA first team, Defensive Player of the Year, four-time MVP, four-time Finals MVP, four-time NBA Champion, and 7-time All Defense first team. Again, that is when he took two years off, so it would be pretty easy to add a pair to the All-NBA and All-Star award count.

Jordan was just the perfect basketball player, and it is just too hard to beat perfection. There will never be another Jordan and we  should stop comparing the current players to Jordan, it would be a disservice to them. We should just appreciate who they are.

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