honestly, with the way the NBA is looking, there's no reason to believe Lebron won't be able to keep winning, which is the main reason Jordan is viewed the way he is. While Magic ended up with 5 championships, there were a lot of really good teams that slowed them down. In the 90s, there was nobody to really challenge the Bulls. The Pistons, Lakers and Celtics all aged out and Jordan was just better than all his "rivals," whether it was Drexler, Barkley, Ewing, Malone, Robinson, Reggie or Hakeem. Even in the 2000s, you had the Lakers and Spurs who from 1999-2004, ended each other's season 5 times. Unless OKC makes a move to add another player, I don't see anyone being good enough to beat Miami in 7 games next year as well. Even with Wade declining, Chris Bosh likely has too many good years left for them to at least not make the finals in the east.
1. First of all, Jordan retired and came back to win three more. Two of his prime years were gone. Even Payton said he was 'easier' to guard when he came back, but he still won three. He rose and stayed on top. Lebron on the other lost after Cleveland after getting swept, both to the Celtics and Orlando. He clearly saw the writing on the wall. And the argument that the organization did nothing is not really sustained, simply by the fact that both season before he left Cleveland they were the number one team with over 60 plus wins. If Lebron made the finals and lost both those years one could argue the case, but he lost both times in the Eastern conference.
2. Second, if you actually look at Lebron's stats, his numbers drop when the play-offs come around. For example, 27 points a game average is below his regular season average. These are actual realities that people simply ignore, and they choose to go after obscure stats. Jordan's rises in play-offs and hits it's peak the finals. The NBA final averages aren't even close.
3. Jordan played top teams, with established HoF in their prime, including Stockton and Malone and a Seattle team with Payton, a HoF PG, Kemp and guys like Schrempf and McMillan. They were definitely not cake-walk teams. Seattle beat a whole bunch of stack teams and their defense was absolutely phenomenal that year. The Blazers were not cake-walks either, breezing through their play-off runs. Plus, Jordan beat the defending champion Pistons at their peak.
4. If you take stats like 45 points per game in the playoffs, Jordan had in five what Lebron has his whole career, in this era. he has 7, along with Iverson. Wilt is at number 2 with 8 and Jordan is at 25 games with those numbers.
5. If one argues that Jordan had a cake-walk, Lebron has had it way easier. In a league that Lebron took his Cleveland team to the finals, people ignore the fact that both Dwight and Allen Iverson carried their teams to the finals in a pathetic Eastern conference. In fact, Howard, whose offensive game is utterly lacking and is an absolute nut-case, beat the 60 plus win team of Lebron. Allen Iverson's second leading scorer scored less than both Lebron's second and third leading scorer. This year, Lebron played the Bobcats essentially without Al Jefferson, meaning the worst team in the league a year prior, an aging Nets teams without Brook Lopez and a utterly-overrated Pacers team with a Center shooting multiple zero and 2 point games this playoffs. The West batters and bruises itself until it reaches the team. Plus, Jordan only played in one game seven in any of his championship runs, while it's a trademark of the Heat team.
6. This is without even taking into account stats like seven game series where the league has extended the number of games, giving more chances for things like play-off points.
7. If you look at Lebron's championship stats from 26-29 and compare them to Jordan's in the playoffs his first three championships, it's not even close. Jordan for example has 8 PPG more than him, beats Lebron in steals and assists, and the only thing Lebron bests him in rebounds by an insignificant margin and three point shooting, the latter only because he took way more. And as I said before, 3 point shooting has changed dramatically.
It's just the reality that rules were changed to create more Jordans. Hand-checking is the single-biggest advantage a defender had against an offensive player, directing that player to a direction one wanted to go. What your talking about is a totally different game. You have 3 point shooters hanging out in the corners nowadays creating all this space. Grant was not joking when he said Jordan could average 40.
