ScotsNation: Lebron James or Michael Jordan?

Whether you love or hate LeBron James, you have to appreciate and respect what he has been doing
this season. Not only is he clearly the best player in the game today, but he recently separated himself
from every other player to ever play in the NBA.

After Tuesday night’s game against the Portland Trailblazers, in which he scored 30 points on 11-15
field goal attempts, he now has six straight game of having 30 plus points and shooting over 60 percent
from the field, not to mention his nine assists.

Breaking Moses Malone’s old record of five straight games during the 1981-1982 seasons, LeBron
is now the only player in the history of the NBA to possess those numbers. Averaging 27 points, seven
assists, and eight rebounds on the season, LeBron is most likely on his way to his fourth MVP award.

Video game-like numbers such as these have people comparing him to you know who. Well, LeBron
made sure to share his feelings about that when he tweeted “I’m not MJ, I’m LJ.”

First of all, I would just like to say that people have been comparing him to Michael Jordan for a long
time through no one’s fault but his own. After nicknaming himself “The Chosen One” and “King James”
and wearing the number 23 for the first part of his career, what did he expect?

You don’t want to be compared to Jordan? Well too bad, get over it. That’s how it works LeBron.
When you are a great player, you get compared to other great players, and if you want to go down as
the best player to ever play the game, then get ready to be compared to “His Airness.”

Anyway, when LeBron finally grew up, he realized that he had to become his own person and his own
player. Taking his talents to South Beach and changing his number to six was a good start in my opinion.
Since then, LeBron has finally figured out his game and understands how to use his freakish skills and
abilities in the most efficient ways.

Developing a polished post game, as well as finally turning himself into a jump-shooter and a lethal
threat beyond the three point line, have been the causes of his success. Defenders used to dare him to
shoot the jumper. Now that LeBron has ability to make jump shots as well as blow past defenders and
get lay-ups in the lane, it makes it almost impossible to guard him effectively throughout the course of
an entire game. Not only that, but he has the ability to turn into a floor general and make his teammates
better by setting them up for easy shots. In short, there is really nothing anyone can do to stop him. All

you can do is hope and pray he misses, which is unlikely at this point.

With that being said, people tend to get carried away when they start comparing him to the man
who changed the game of basketball forever, Michael Jordan. What LeBron is doing this year is truly
incredible, but we have seen similar numbers put up by Jordan, not to mention that Jordan played in an
era of the NBA that was much more dedicated on the defensive side of the ball.

Don’t get me wrong, LeBron is dominating the league in an effortless fashion, but at this point in his
career, meaning with only one ring, to even bring up the question of whether or not he is better than
Jordan is just blasphemous and disrespectful to MJ.

Listen, whether you agree or not, whenever any player is being compared to MJ, especially “LJ,” they
better have multiple championships on their resume.

There are many great players that have never won a championship: Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing,
Karl Malone, Elgin Baylor, John Stockton, etc. All of these players are considered to be some of the most
elite NBA players to ever play, yet none of them are ever compared to Jordan.

That’s because there is a difference between being “elite” and simply being “the best,” which consists
of winning multiple championships, and being the main reason for those championships. Some can even
argue that Dwyane Wade deserves more credit than LeBron for last year’s championship because of his
performance in the finals. But that is another discussion for another day.

Right now, LeBron is clearly an elite player that you can compare to players like Barkley and Malone.
But until he beefs up his resume with four or five more rings, which is very possible within the next
decade, he will never be considered to be better than Jordan by the majority of basketball fans.

So, is LeBron the best basketball player in the game today? Yes. Can he already be considered one of
the best players in NBA history? Yes. But can he be considered to be better than Michael Jordan? No,
absolutely not. But he is definitely on his way.