Scottie Pippen said last week that Lebron James may be, could be, might be, or maybe even will be … better than MJ.  That’s a considerable statement – comparing Lebron to the greatest guard to ever live and potentially the best player ever, the GOAT.  It has even more bearing considering Scottie’s own pedigree as one of the 50 NBA greatest of all time and as Jordan’s partner in crime.  I personally dismissed it as soon as I heard it, but I started to read on the Internet and encounter on Facebook people who actually believe that Lebron is better than Jordan.

Are we living in Crazy Land?!

Both they and Mr. Pippen terrible, horrible, completely wrong.  And here’s why.

Make no mistake about it, Lebron is a great player already.  The more I watch him though the more I am convinced that a lot of his potential was awarded to him off of hope rather than anything substantial.  I am going to examine this with two methods.  First, statistically and then second, with common sense.

Statistically

Regular Season: Lebron has been in the league for 8 seasons.  That’s our first comparison, easy peasy.  Lebron v. Jordan:

	PPG	RPG	APG	STL	BLK	TOs	FG%	3G%	FT%
Lebron	27.7	7.1	7.0	1.7	0.8	3.3	48%	33%	74%
Jordan	32.3	6.3	6.0	2.7	1.1	3.1	52%	28%	85%

Looking at Jordan’s first eight seasons, it’s very tempting to say that Jordan was both the most potent offensive force in production (+4.6 ppg) and efficiency.  The field goal % is particularly telling, because Lebron should have a huge advantage in this statistic because he’s a 6′ 9″, 280 pound power forward.  Larger, stronger players naturally have higher field goal rate.  For instance, did you know that only 1 guy in the top 10 best FG % is below 6′ 10″?  That guy?  He’s 6′ 9″.  Lebron’s height.

For the record, Jordan is 6′ 6″ and played at 195 pounds.

James does have a higher 3p%, but here’s the thing about Jordan.  If you take the average of his remaining career in Chicago, his 3-point percentage increases to 37%.  That’s the thing about Jordan – constant improvement.  The quest for dominance pushed him to evolve as his knees faded and his athleticism left.  He came in as a terrible long range shooter (~16% in his first four seasons), but he dramatically improved it over the off season of 1988.  In his later career, he was a lethal jump shooter and a very competent long range shooter.

Lebron?  His shooting averages are consistent throughout his career.  No improvement there.  The big difference though is that Mike shot 727 three pointers in his 1st eight seasons.  Lebron shot 2,623.

What about Free Throws?  Both are/were the face of the game, so if you are inclined you can assume that both get their ample share of referee friendliness.  You can measure how much aggressiveness a player has in driving as well as punishment his body takes through the number of FTs he shoots.  Lebron earned 5,580 FTs so far.  In the same amount of time Jordan 5,456.  Almost identical, except when you take into account that Jordan weighed almost 100 pounds less than Lebron … and that the game back in the 80s and 90s was much more physical, i.e. hand checking, etc.

Per 36-Minutes: A second consideration.  Lebron plays more minutes than Jordan on average which inflates his per game statistics a little.  Let’s see what their statistics look like if we recalibrate their per game stats instead to a per 36-minute stat.

	PPG	RPG	APG	STL	BLK	TOs	FG%	3G%	FT%
Lebron	24.8	6.4	6.2	1.5	0.8	3.0	48%	33%	74%
Jordan	30.0	5.8	5.5	2.5	1.0	2.8	52%	28%	85%

The differences become even more profound as Jordan distances himself in the areas he led and closes ground on the areas he trailed.

Play-Offs: Now let’s look at the most important part of the season, the post season.  They are the most contested games against the best teams with the greatest amount of pressure and media attention.  How have the two fared head to head in their first eight seasons?  Even though there are now more play-off games for Lebron, the two players have approximately the same number because Jordan got into the play-offs earlier in his career (89 for Lebron, 92 for Jordan).

	PPG	RPG	APG	STL	BLK	TOs	FG%	3G%	FT%
Lebron	28.4	8.4	7.0	1.7	1.0	3.6	46%	33%	75%
Jordan	33.0	6.4	6.4	2.3	0.9	3.3	49%	40%	85%

Pretty interesting comparison.  Lebron’s steals, blocks, FG %, 3%, and FT% all remain pretty level.  He has a spike in scoring, assists, and rebounding.  This no doubt means that he raises his game in the play-offs, at least statistically.  But he’s not gaining any ground on Jordan, who has a dramatic increase in scoring, rebounding, assists, and surprisingly, his 3-point percentage.

Remember, that this is only the first 8 seasons, by which Jordan was already winning his second championship.  Lebron might win his first after joining forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Conclusion: Statistically, it’s easy to see that Lebron is a great player.  Jordan, however, was greater.  And that’s not even considering that amazingly after eight years, Jordan’s best was still to come.

Common Sense

League Awards & Recognition: Firstly, we’ll just take a look at how the league, their coaches, and their peers have done to honor the two players.  In Lebron’s first 8 seasons, he was:

• Rookie of the Year 2004
• 7x All-Star
• 1x Scoring Champion
• 5x All-NBA First Team
• 3x All-Defensive Team
• 2x All-Star Game MVP

That’s a big resume.  Very impressive.  No one is saying that Lebron isn’t great.  Let’s see though what Jordan did in his first 8 seasons (1984-1992):

• Rookie of the Year 1985
• 7x All-Star
• 6x Scoring Champion
• 6x All-NBA First Team
• 4x All-Defensive Team
• 1x All-Star Game MVP
• 2x NBA Champion
• 2x Finals MVP
• 3x NBA MVP
• Defensive Player of the Year 1988

Sorry, King, but the Air has the throne here, as well.  Remember, just the first eight seasons are being considered.  Jordan would later go on to win four more championships, two more MVPs, seven more All-Star appearances, three more All-Defensive teams, four more All-NBA first teams, and three more Finals MVPs.  Oh yeah, Jordan never lost a Finals.

To be honest, I’m having trouble finding an area in which I could conceivably make the argument that James is better than Jordan.  Lebron is not Jordan.  Kobe is not Jordan though you could argue that he is much more in the mold.

So what is it about him that leads people into such unfounded statements?

The Myth of the King

The Body: This is the primary component of the Lebron legend.  It’s all based on this unearthly amount of potential.

I’ve found several sources that list his vertical leap at 44 inches.  That’s nearly four feet.  Compare his jumping ability to the greatest jumpers in the NBA (regardless of size) and you get Michael at 48″, Darrell Griffith 48″, Spud Webb 46″, Dee Brown 44″, and Harold Miner 44″.  The big difference there is that these are guards and I think nearly all of them are under 200 lbs.

To compare Lebron to other basketball leapers of his size you get this instead: Shawn Kemp (6′ 10″, 40″), Dominique Wilkins (6′ 8″, 42″), and Antonio McDyess (6′ 9″, 42″).  He beats them all, not by much but he’s still jumping higher.  The big part of this is that he outweighs them respectively by +50, +50, and +35 pounds.  Those type of hops with a body like Ben Wallace is superhuman indeed.

The other side of it is his strength.  Lebron was one of the few individuals straight out of high school that had a man’s body.  And not just a man’s body, but insane.  He has since put on a lot of mass and muscle and still maintains his superb athleticism.  This is the one thing that makes him so unique – a combination of Shaq-like strength and Dominique-like leaping.  It gives him the ability to play more minutes, more games, draw more fouls, shoot more free throws, and get to the rim more often.

But … how does Lebron use this freakish athleticism when it matters most?  Does he dominate the 4th quarter?  There have been times, yes.  But whatever about overall?  Let’s look at the entire 2011 post season’s 4th quarters now that he has the team that he chose, rather than Cleveland.

• In those crunch times (18 quarters), the most dominant physical player to ever step onto a court attempted 17 lay-ups, dunks, or point blank shots.  He made 15 of them.  That’s less than 1 lay-up attempt per 4Q.
• He drew 31 fouls, earning 44 FTs.  Or less than 1.5 per 4Q and 2.4 FTs per 4Q.
• Maybe he’s instead, facilitating the offense with assists?  Nope, he’s averaging just over 1 assist per 4th quarter.  Which if you look at his play-off statistics is less than his quarterly average.

So if he’s not driving to the basket or passing, what is the best physical specimen doing in fourth quarters, the most important time of the game?

• The King shot 87 jumpers (2-point and 3-point combined).  Or more than x5 his attempts to get at the basket.
• He’s shooting a ghastly 33% (29-87).

Wait a second?  You mean that the most dominant finisher at the rim in the game right now, the best transition fast break dunker … is busy jacking up mid- and long range jumpers even though he’s consistently bricking them?  Yep.

It’s not his fault though if none of his coaches have asked him to use his physical skills in a different way than jack up jumpers, such as play with his back to the basket, post up the smaller and weaker forwards, etc, right?  Well, actually … Mike Brown and Cleveland asked him to several times, begged even, but Lebron said NO.  That’s not his game.  And because he is the King, they had to give up … as well as offer team parking for his entourage of high school buddies.

Nope, Lebron was given the body of the Destructor, but wants to play like a less accurate Dwyane Wade.

Witness: That’s the core of why Lebron is not and probably never will be in the same conversation as Michael, Kobe, Bird, or Magic.  It’s that inner toughness and the drive to dominate that he simply has shown no measure of in his basketball career.  He seemed disinterested in the Conference Semifinals against Boston last year, registering below his season averages in every statistical category and creating +1.1 more turnovers per game.  Truth is it is much worse than that if you remember watching the series.  He did the 2011 fourth quarter routine of shooting rather than creating in the paint the ENTIRE series.  He gave up so that he could wait out a summer to let Dwyane Wade be the man.  To let Wade take the pressure.

He doesn’t have the same mental strength that MJ or Kobe or the other greats have.  Most of his pressure moments in this year’s play-offs are littered with mistakes and misteps, such as the two inexplicable, missed 3-pointers against Dallas in game 2 of the Finals with 1:31 left, or his offensive foul against Chicago, game 4, when the game was tied and 0:08 on the clock, or losing the ball to Ray Allen with 0:19 seconds left in Game 4 against Boston.

It’s not fair to compare him to the greats just because he has a one:billion physique, is it?  Or maybe it’s the billion dollars Nike has poured into him and his image that make all the youngsters proclaim him as the Mr. Unstoppable.  Unfortunately, the memory of sports fans is surprisingly short.

No.  Lebron, as great as he is, can’t be considered the best player ever.  He’s not even the best player on his own team.

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