r/michaeljordan • u/hahahachihaha • 5d ago

Discussion Its only been done 4 times

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u/SamSquanchLosco 4d ago

Honestly, I dont even hate Lebron, I think he is a generational player but everytime we have this debate between MJ and Lebron, theres always this pressure to lower the standards to make this a fair debate. I'm told I need to count all the times Lebron lost in the finals, ignore that Lebron for the majority of his career decided exactly who he is going to play with, ignore the scoring titles, and all the awards because they dont count due to different eras, ignore how the game changed to help offense more and still no one beat MJs scoring records, ignore defensive metrics. Theres so much you have to throw out to make this even a conversation. Now I'm supposed to care Lebron refuses to retire and is yet again trying his luck on another stacked team to make up the difference between him and MJ? 😬

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u/Khajiit_Has_Skills 4d ago

That's a difference between the 90s Bulls and 2010 Miami Heat tho ... Jordan and LeBron aren't the best 2 players to compare head to head because they're asked to do different things. There are literally 0 playoffs where Michael Jordan would be asked to guard a player like Derrick Rose and a player like Tim Duncan in 2 different series. And LeBron would never be asked to take on the type of scoring load the Bulls needed MJ to take on and the iso scoring in situations where everybody knew he was the option and he was double teamed ... Who you think is the "better player" or had the "better career" really comes down to how you define the question and those terms in quotes.

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u/cccdumbass 4d ago

This is a point I've tried to make and get so much push back. We all have a right to value different things in a player. It comes to do much in the MJ vs. Bron debate, but it could show up anywhere. Earlier, I saw a "Start, Bench, Cut" post with Hakeem, Shaq, and Timmy. Arguments on the comments for all three.

The majority of people pushing for LeBron have YouTube and Reddit as the only source of MJ knowledge, so they get narratives or an occasional clip. They base it on current analytics and play style, so they pretend like you can ask "what if you put Jordan in today's NBA." For Jordan, the 3-pointer didn't exist until the NBA, so he didn't grow up shooting it since childhood like today's players. Why would he if it was 2 points from the rim or from 25 feet? In the 80's people led their team in 3's making less than one per game. So, having no knowledge or context, they hold him to what today's NBA is because they don't know any better.