The ultimate question and debate among NBA fans, Who’s the greatest of all time? For the majority of the people, two names immediately pop up, Michael Jordan and LeBron James. No denying their greatness, but who’s better? If you asked this question a couple of seasons ago a good portion of people would say Michael Jordan, but these past two seasons LeBron achieved things that just might give him the edge.
Last season LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be the NBA all time leading scorer. This accomplishment seemed nearly impossible considering it took almost 40 years to break it. To hit that goal you have to be consistently really good for a really long time. If you looked at LeBron’s averages from his rookie year, his best year and the current year, you couldn’t even tell the difference, which is why nobody is better at doing that than LeBron James.
This season on March 4, 2025 LeBron James did the unthinkable again. He hit the 50,000 point mark which no one has ever done before.Throughout his 22 year career he averaged 27 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds. In LeBron’s best season he averaged 30 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds. At 40 years old he’s averaging 25 points, 8 assists, and 8 rebounds, which is why Lebron has the best longevity out of any athlete. Although Lebron has more career accomplishments, in the statistical category Jordan had a better peak performance than LeBron.
In Jordan’s best season he had 35 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists, however in Jordan’s career he averaged 30 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists, and in his latest season he only averaged 20 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. However, Jordan’s best season was better than Lebron’s best, his current season is by far better. In LeBron’s 22 seasons he only won four rings. In Jordan’s 15 seasons he won six rings. With him being the finals MVP in all of them. Jordan also has one more regular season MVP over Lebron. Lebron has more all-starts and All NBA teams but a main reason is because he played longer. Jordan has more scoring titles and all defensive teams. I decided to ask Lowellville’s NBA fans who they think is a better player.
Luka Mastronikolas said, “ I think Lebron was better because he’s the all time leading scorer, he’s top 5 in assists. It took him a shorter time to get a ring than Jordan. He took two trash teams to the finals.”
Carter Miller’s father, Art Miller said, “Nobody fears LeBron, Look how many players in the hall of fame don’t have any championships because of MJ. MJ is 6-0 in the finals and he left for two years in the middle. He had two three-peats and if they didn’t break up the team who would have known how many more he could have got. Lebron is 4-6 in the finals and he had to leave and go places. Even Tom Brady, who is considered the best QB ever, was 7-3, that’s almost half as many as he won, but he’s the goat still. If I was an owner and building a team my first pick would be MJ because he has the killer instinct like no one else and he wants to win. If we look at the stats LeBron has great stats but I’m not building a team for stats. I’m building one to win. And the point of basketball is to win. Try to find a team that has three-peats nowadays. It didn’t happen. That’s how good Michael Jordan was.”
Michael Jordan’s peak was better than Lebron’s but Lebron was better over a longer period of time, which is why this is such a tough debate. If Lebron could pull off another important accolade this year like winning a ring could be the final reason on why he’d be the greatest of all time. The Lakers are 4th in the western conference as of now, and they have talent and the opportunity to go far and to be champions. So this season could be the settling factor on why Lebron is the greatest player of all time. Unless that happens it’s still a toss up between many.
