The Paw Print

By Kieran Blake

The year is 2003. George W. Bush is president, 50 Cent is taking the U.S. by storm, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is dominating the box office. But something else is also happening in 2003. The sport of basketball is witnessing the end of an era– and the start of a new one. That’s right, in the 2003 NBA Draft, which contained one of the greatest draft classes the world has ever seen, the Cleveland Cavaliers selected an 18-year-old kid from Akron, Ohio. The basketball world already knows his name: LeBron James. He’s being branded as “The Chosen One”, and he has his face brandished on the cover of that ever-so-iconic issue of the prestigious Sports Illustrated magazine. The sporting world sees him as a god among men– a king, so to speak. No, not just a king. The King. 

In the nation’s capital, however, the world is changing simultaneously. No, it’s not an election, but a little over two months earlier, the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan played his final game in the NBA, for real this time, as he had fooled the world twice before only to come out of retirement and play again. He’s really gone this time. He didn’t die a hero’s death; he could’ve, but he didn’t. He could’ve retired as a Chicago Bull after hitting the game-winner in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, but he instead decided to play two more seasons for a lackluster Washington Wizards team that failed to make the playoffs both times, not because of his playing ability, but possibly because of his general management skills (he was both the star of and the general manager of the Wizards, and as general manager, he made some horrible decisions, such as drafting Kwame Brown with the first pick in the draft and trading away Rip Hamilton). 

So the greatest basketball player of the 20th century was gone, and two months later, the greatest basketball player of the 21st century entered the league. Poetic, isn’t it? The same year Jordan retired, LeBron came into the NBA. It’s as if it was meant to be. Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” It’s as if God himself passed the torch from Jordan to LeBron. The NBA was at a crossroads in its existence, and with that, one of the greatest debates in sports history was sparked. Twenty years later, the question is now being asked. The universal question. Jordan or LeBron? 

Let me answer that question for you: Jordan. He played in a more physical era, an era before the three-point line, and an era with stronger defense. Don’t try to claim that LeBron’s a better scorer, because he’s not– yeah, he has the all-time record, but Jordan has the higher points per game, by almost three points. Jordan has more accolades, more rings, and played on worse teams than LeBron did. When the going got tough, Jordan stayed on Bulls teams whose starting lineup consisted of Sam Vincent and Dave Corzine, while LeBron packed up his belongings and

headed down to South Beach to play with two future Hall of Famers. Jordan was better under pressure, and all around, let’s face it, Jordan was a better winner. 

I’ve already written an article about the lack of physicality in today’s NBA. So here, I’m going to be brief. The defense these days is weaker, and the three-pointer has turned basketball games into a shootout. Post play is like Alderaan at the start of A New Hope– blasted into oblivion. The lackluster defense in the NBA is evidenced by the stark contrast in the scoring numbers between the NBA now and the NBA in the ‘90s. You just don’t see that physical defense from teams today like you saw from the ‘80s Celtics and the ‘90s Bulls. Three-pointers are being jacked up this way and that, and comparing the amount of three-point attempts in the NBA today to the amount of three-point attempts in the NBA back then is like comparing the quality of Nickelback to the quality of Led Zeppelin. To be frank, physical play these days just isn’t receiving a whole lotta love. 

The players in the NBA in the ‘90s read like a murderer’s row of Hall of Famers. Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, David Robinson, Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Clyde Drexler, Grant Hill, and so on. Jordan had to go up against those guys night after night, and he vanquished every single one. Jordan was a killer, and he showed it on both sides of the court, playing some of the best defense the NBA has ever seen, while also playing THE BEST offense in league history. LeBron didn’t have to face those guys each night. LeBron’s biggest competition in the East after coming back to Cleveland entailed a Paul Millsap-led Atlanta Hawks team in 2015, a Toronto Raptors team led by the duo of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan in 2016, a Boston Celtics team dominated by Isaiah Thomas in 2017, and a triple threat of the Celtics, Raptors, and Philadelphia 76ers, whose second-highest scorer was notable role player JJ Redick, in 2018. And all three of those teams in 2018 had better regular-season records than LeBron’s Cavaliers. In the 2011 NBA Finals, the Miami Heat’s roster consisted of LeBron and Hall of Famers Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, and they got outdueled by an aging Dallas Mavericks team in six games, with LeBron averaging an abysmal 17.8 points per game and being outscored Mavericks point guard Jason Terry. If a player gets outscored by zero-time All-Star Jason Terry in the NBA Finals, chances are, they’re not the greatest player of all time. 

The argument that LeBron is a better scorer than Jordan is a myth. Jordan is the highest per-game scorer in NBA history, with a points per game of 30.12. LeBron sits behind Jordan at 27.16 points per game, and that substantial gap alone explicitly points to the fact that Jordan is a better scorer than LeBron. Samuel L. Jackson appearing in 135 movies and Daniel Day-Lewis appearing in 21 movies doesn’t make Samuel L. Jackson a better actor than Daniel Day-Lewis. As much as I love Samuel L. Jackson, one of them has three Oscars and the other doesn’t. The same logic applies to Jordan and LeBron. 

The reason LeBron has the all-time scoring record is because he played longer. Jordan took a year and a half off from basketball in the middle of his prime and took another three years off after leading the league in scoring for three years straight. Jordan led the league in scoring ten times, while LeBron only accomplished that feat once. LeBron has three seasons in which he

averaged over 30 points a game. Jordan had eight. LeBron’s highest single-season points per game is 31.4. Jordan had six seasons in which he averaged higher than that number. Jordan tops LeBron in points per game, per 36 minutes, per 100 possessions; almost every single major scoring metric there is points to Jordan being a better scorer than LeBron, and if total points were the statistic that decided who was the greatest player in NBA history, Karl Malone would be the third best player ever. 

Speaking of Karl Malone, prime Michael Jordan was the grim reaper of the NBA, taking his scythe and striking down anyone who stood in his way. After finally defeating the Detroit Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, he took out the Magic Johnson-led Los Angeles Lakers, who had dominated the ‘80s, in just five games. He beat Clyde Drexler’s Portland Trail Blazers in six games in ‘92, and in 1993, he crushed the hopes of Charles Barkley’s Phoenix Suns in six games as well, scoring the most points in an NBA Finals game since 1967 with 55 in game four. He then retired in the middle of his prime to play baseball and came back midway through the 1995 season, in which he lost to the Shaquille O’Neal-led Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Semifinals because he still wasn’t 100% Michael Jordan again. In 1996, he came back for revenge, beating the Magic 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals on his way to thrashing the Seattle Supersonics, a young team showcasing future Hall of Famer Gary Payton, six-time All-Star Shawn Kemp, and three-time All-Star Detlef Schrempf. He then beat Karl Malone and John Stockton’s Utah Jazz in six games in both 1997 and 1998, with his iconic flu game coming in ‘97 and his final shot as a Chicago Bull securing the title in ‘98. 

LeBron is in his 21st season in the NBA, and Jordan still has more accolades than him, despite playing in only 15 seasons (two of which he didn’t even play 25% of). Jordan has five MVPs to LeBron’s four (even though Jordan should have at least seven), six Finals MVPs to LeBron’s four, six championships to LeBron’s four, nine All-Defensive Teams to LeBron’s six, and one Defensive Player of the Year to LeBron’s zero. LeBron only has more All-Star Game appearances and All-NBA Teams because he played for six more years in a less physical era. 

When a survey of Payton students was conducted asking who the greatest NBA player of all time was, 16 students responded Michael Jordan, and only one responded LeBron James. A few other answers were given, the best of them being Kevin Durant, but the overwhelming majority of students believed that the greatest player to ever step on a basketball court was Michael Jeffrey Jordan. 

As two students (both of whom wished to remain anonymous) responded, Michael Jordan had “no Game 7s” in the NBA Finals. Jordan never choked under pressure, and in the NBA Finals, he never went to a Game 7. LeBron has been to two Game 7s in the NBA Finals, and while he won both times, in 2013 against the Spurs and in 2016 against the Warriors, the fact that he had to go to a Game 7 shows how close those series were. 

Jordan is also more iconic than LeBron. In the words of sophomore Kayla Reed, “50% of this school [is] wearing … Jordans.” Jordan isn’t just an icon of basketball, he’s an icon of the world. While there’s no debating that LeBron is iconic, Jordan is a basketball god. He might be the single most iconic figure in sports history. People who don’t know his name are hard to come

by, and while being well-known doesn’t necessarily mean that Jordan is a good basketball player, when coupled with his statistics, his position at number one is nearly impossible to overtake. As sophomore Jesus Heredia put it, Jordan “has all qualities necessary” and “never lost a final.” 

Jordan was dominant on both sides of the ball, and he was a killer, and as Logan Roy stated in an episode of Succession, “You have to be a killer.” Michael Jordan conquered all who stood in his path. There have been people who could stop LeBron. No man could stop Michael Jordan.