This topic gets brought up in almost every basketball discussion: Who’s the better player, LeBron James or Michael Jordan?

In my mind it is hard to compare the two because they both played at different times and also both played different positions. The argument still comes up a lot, so I wanna share my opinion on this topic.

Here’s some reasons why Michael Jordan is the better player and still the greatest of all time.

Jordan is the better scorer. He won 10 scoring titles while LeBron only has won 1. Before I go any further, I’m writing this article at the point in LeBron’s career when he played as many seasons as Jordan, with both having 15 played.

Let’s continue. Jordan played in a way-better era . In the 1980’s and 1990’s, defense was better and there was more 50 and 60 win teams than there are now. 27 of the 37 playoff opponents Jordan faced had over 50 wins, while 18 of LeBron’s opponents (out of 37) had under 50 wins.

Jordan was a far better defender. Jordan has been selected to the All-Defense First Team 9 times while Lebron has only been selected 5 times. Jordan won the award once in 1988 when there were many more top defenders. LeBron has won the award 0 times. LeBron also let’s his opponents up their scoring average in the finals. For example Tony Parker in 2007, Jason Terry in 2011, Kevin Durant in 2012, and Andre Iguodala in 2015.

Michael Jordan took over games while LeBron sometimes chokes. Early on in LeBron’s career, he was classified as a choker. Jordan always showed up in the big time moments hitting the clutch shots to win games and even in the NBA final games.

LeBron has a losing record in the finals with a 3-5 record while Jordan is a perfect 6-6 in the finals. You can argue that LeBron made it to more finals, but Jordan is 6-6. At the end of the day, I would rather be 6-6 rather than 3-5. 

The final argument I’m going to point out is that Jordan just flat out has better numbers than LeBron while they both played 15 seasons each. Jordan has more points and steals. Also Jordan has played less minutes than LeBron has while shooting less shots. LeBron will probably never catch Jordan even though LeBron has at least 5 more seasons to play. 

Lebron is a great player and has all the right reasons to be the 2nd best player of all time, but has not enough to pass Michael Jordan for that one spot.