A sportswriter comparing current players to Michael Jordan is like someone driving 55 in the fast lane: someone always does it, they’re usually old, it’s always annoying, and they’re just getting in the way of the rest of us. But it’s playoff season…so I guess this time it’s going to be me. Here’s the thing: Jordan not having a dominant big man, having only one real quality sidekick, and still winning six titles, means that current players trying to live up to that legacy (read: LeBron James) not only need to win it all, but they need to do it repeatedly…without any help. Obviously this standard is ridiculous; it’s like telling every Olympic High-Jumper it only counts if they cut off one leg. And yet something crazy is happening right now, and I promise you this isn’t just playoff hyperbole, but right now LeBron James, losses and all, is better than Michael Jordan.
Just to clarify, I don’t mean that the best of LeBron is better than the best of Jordan. What I mean is that we’re constantly comparing today’s LeBron to the best of Jordan, and that’s not fair. It’s like comparing an appetizer to the main course. Comparing the first six years of LeBron to the last six years of Jordan isn’t apples to apples, it is apples to Shakespeare.
We don’t think about that half-ass part-owner of the Bobcats, we don’t think about the old man wearing a Wizards jersey, and we don’t think about that guy that wore #45 for half a season. Thinking of MJ as one of those guys would be like thinking of Barack Obama as “Barry the high school basketball shooting guard.” The Michael Jordan that we remember is the guy that pushed off Byron Russell and hit the game winning shot in Utah. And we know he pushed off, and we loved that about him. He did what he needed to do to win and Lord Help You if you tried to stop him. The “Urban Dictionary” defines Jordanesque as “a word to define all forms of perfection.” To us, Michael Jordan will always be those 6 years. He will always be perfect… and every other player, past, present and future gets screwed because of it.
But guess what? He wasn’t perfect. And I’m still not referring to that guy on the Wizards or that weirdo wearing 45. I’m talking about the Chicago Bulls’ #23. Be Like Mike himself. He wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t. He wasn’t suspended for 18 months for gambling, no matter how juicy that story is. And he didn’t win every game he ever played. He won 6 Championships. Which is amazing. Extraordinary. And everything else your Word-of-the-Day calendar can come up with. But he wasn’t perfect. So walk with me back through his career, because unlike everybody else making the LeBron v. MJ comparisons, I’m actually going to look at them during the same point in their careers.
The first three
Do you honestly remember the first few years? The Bulls win totals in his first 3 years: 38, 30, and 40. Their playoff record those 3 years: 1-9. Three straight first round exits. But for those of you that point out that MJ never missed the playoffs I only need to point to LeBron’s Cavs missing the playoffs his two years despite averaging 38 wins but Jodan’s Bulls made the playoffs with a record of 30-52. In fact the reason the win total was so low was that Jordan missed most of that 2nd season with an injury; could you even picture someone being able to injure LeBron to the point he misses 60 games?
There’s no denying that Jordan for the most part had better stats those first three years- his rookie season he averaged 28.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists on 51.5% shooting. Those are fantastic numbers. By year 3 though his rebounds dropped (5.2), assists dropped (4.6), but his points skyrocketed to 37.1. LeBron’s year 1 numbers weren’t as good as MJ’s (only 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists.) However LeBron kept improving across the board to that point that year 3 his points had gone above 30/game (31.4), but his rebounds (7.0) and assists (6.6) improved drastically as well. Again- you can’t compare LeBron the 21-yr-old to peak-of-his-career Jordan; but if you compare Year 3 MJ with Year 3 LBJ, clearly LeBron has more going for him.
The next three
In Year 4, MJ and the Bulls made a leap. The next 3 years they won 50, 47, and 55 games respectively. Those same 3 years the Bulls went 23- 20 in the playoffs, making it to the Eastern Conference Finals 2 years in a row. Not surprisingly these 3 years were Jordan’s statistical peak, culminating in 88-89 (Jordan’s 5th year) in which he averaged 32.5, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists. Also not surprising though is that LeBron’s Cavs also made a leap; winning 50, 45, and 66 games respectively, making the Conference Finals twice, and making the NBA Finals once. Just like the other #23, LeBron’s 5th year was his statistical best so far averaging 30 a game, plus 7.9 rebounds, and 7.2 assists. While Jordan’s stats were better LeBron was winning more- both in the regular season and the playoffs. So can you honestly defend Jordan as the better of the two based just on stats like points? Isn’t that why Jordan was so great, because he won so much?
Again- we have been comparing LeBron, everyday for his first 6 years, to Jordan. But we’ve been comparing him to Jordan’s second 6 years. Jordan’s first 6 were statistically fantastic but stop and think about his team’s performance for a second. Jordan’s playoffs win percentage his first 6 years: 45% (24 and 29.) Far from perfect. MJ’s first six years in the league his team’s playoff performances weren’t even average. Meanwhile the Cavs over these last 6 years- 36-24, a 60% win percentage. But here’s the real deciding factor for me:
Year 6. 1990 for Jordan. 2009 for LeBron. Jordan’s Bulls lose in 7 in Eastern Conference Finals (16 games total). LeBron’s too loses in the Eastern Conference Finals but in only 14 games total. These were the two statistically greatest playoff performances ever.
Bill Simmons likes to talk about the 42 Club- in 13 or more playoff games, any player that has points, rebounds, and assists combine to 42. There have been 14 players ever to do it- and they are exactly who you’d expect: Jordan, Magic, Bird, Shaq, etc. Only Shaq, Bird, Jordan, and now LeBron did it more than twice. And only Jordan not only cracked 42, but in 1990 he averaged 50.7. That year, in those 16 games, Jordan shot 51.4%, scoring 36.7 a game, grabbing 7.2 rebounds, and passing out 6.8 assists. This year, in his 14 games, LeBron shot 51%, averaged 35.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 7.3 assists…a 51.7 avg! Let me repeat: this year LeBron put on the greatest statistical performance EVER. The best of LeBron, this past postseason, was better than Jordan’s best.
The Three-Peat(s)
Of course, then again, maybe Jordan’s best isn’t defined by points, rebounds, and assists. Jordan’s best probably began in his 7th year, with his first Championship. In fact, excluding ’94 (no Jordan) and ’95 (#45 Jordan), the Chicago Bulls would go on to win 388 games over the next 6 full seasons (65w/season). Jordan’s 7th year began a run for the Bulls in which they would go 90-26 in the playoffs (a winning percentage of 78%.) In all those seasons, he would never have another statistical one as good as 1990, but instead he did whatever it took to win.
But think back to that 1990 season, after he lost in the Eastern Conference finals, after he put together his best statistical postseason ever, all Michael Jordan could do was go back home, work out harder and remember what it felt like to lose so that he’d never have to again. Something, hopefully, LeBron is already doing.
Because the Jerry Stackhouses and Vince Carters- the talented young scorers- took some of the burden of “the next MJ” title but to think that Jordan was just a scorer is missing the point. It’s LeBron that we really dropped the weight on. We expect him to win. On his own. A lot. We expect him to be perfect. But, of course, he’s not. No one is: not even Michael Jordan, at least in 1990.
The first six years of his career, LeBron James has been better than Michael Jordan was. But it’s the next 6 years that will make the difference.