burninmylight said:
You say James' outside shooting is far weaker than Jordan's, but look at those 3-pointer percentages... 18 percent in the year you pointed out. You call that far superior outside the paint? He didn't start shooting a good 3P% until his 10th year in the league (and it was a damn good percentage too!) LeBron has never shot below 29 percent, and that was in his rookie year. We tend to remember Jordan as this player who was completely dominant in every facet of the game, but we forget that he really wasn't much of a shooter in his early years. His game consisted of getting to the rim at all costs, and he didn't develop a consistent mid-range and outside game until the championship years. This is why I say it isn't fair to compare one guy's complete career to another guy's career that is still being made. But since we're doing that anyway, let's compare some other stats. We don't simply compare the PPG of two guys to determine who is better. I'm going to ignore the Washington years for Jordan, by the way. Rebounds per game: Jordan (6.2), James (7.1) Assists per game: Jordan (5.2), James (6.9) Steals per game: Jordan (2.4), James (1.7) FG%: Jordan (just Chicago, remember) (.497), James (.490) 3FG%: Jordan (.291), James (.337) I'm not even going to get into advanced stats (not right now, at least), like true shooting percentage, points responsible for, and player efficiency rating. But as you can see, James wins three out of five of those "other" categories, and one (FG%) is so close that it's negligible. Points per game is nice and all, but it's hardly tellling of how much more valuable one player is over another. Carmelo Anthony just won the scoring title this past season; no one outside of New York thinks he's in the same class as James or Jordan. Also, before I forget, I must also point out that you have to take into consideration the different eras that they played in. In Jordan's time, everyone generally had higher FG percentages than modern players. Defenses weren't as sophisticated then. Around the early-to-mid 2000s, defense became such a premium in the NBA and scoring/shooting percentages was getting so low that the NBA changed the rules to pretty much outlaw handchecking around the perimeter. Which leads me to my next point: Jordan had it tougher than James because the game in his day was much more physical. Refs nowadays are a lot quicker to whistle a guy for putting a hand on a ballhandler around the perimeter because the NBA wants to encourage more athleticism and getting to the rim. Also, you forget or don't realize that James is far more versatile than Jordan ever was. Jordan was a guard through and through; a wing pretty much, a combo guard at best. James has been called on to play PG, SG, SF and PF throughout his career, and has done them all well. He regularly guards all four positions, depending on the opponent's best player, and guards them well. Jordan was rarely asked to guard big men, if ever. The NBA is all about matchups, and exploiting mismatches on offenses and plugging holes on defense. A guy who can perform efficiently at more positions than the one indicated on his bio in the program guide is invaluable. TL;DR - Everyone had higher FG%s in Jordan's day, but everyone has it easier on offense in Jame's current day. James' versatility is something you're vastly undervaluing, and something Jordan has no comparison for. |
No worries, and I was not talking about 3p FG's (It was rare for Jordan to even shoot a 3) I am talking about outside of the paint. Jordan was absolutely dominate inside the paint as well as his mid range game. His turn around fade away is probably still the best off balance shooter to this day (maybe Dirk beats him on that now though, idk)
Versatile? Jordan lead his team to 6 champion ships with multiple years averaging well beyond 30 ppg as well as in the post-season. Jordan was also a great passer and rebounder and has won a defensive player of the year award because he also is great with steals. Well beyond james on that actually.
James is a versatile player yes but he still has to work on his game a lot before he will be considered even remotely as good as Jordan. It has been pointed out multiple times in the last few years the only player we have that can be related to Jordan is Kobe and he still doesn't hold up for many reasons. Even Phil Jackson has pointed this out recently.
James may be versatile but Jordan was as well and much more dominate than James. That is the one thing they are similar with is that they are both all-around players. Yes they are in different era's of basketball and that isn't helping James case when the 80's and 90's was a much more physical game than now.
