How can you make an argument to dethrone a king whose legacy has been untouched for years? How can one touch an intangible mark in the world if no one has even come close to it? In the sport of basketball, Michael Jordan, a hall of fame inductee and a six time NBA champion, is a combination of the king and that intangible mark. He is known across the world as the greatest player ever, whose basketball level is unreachable thanks to his killer instinct, athleticism, and God given abilities. However, as of late, Lebron James, a four time MVP and a three time NBA champion, is being acknowledged for playing at a higher level than his competitors, resulting in others to believe that he is neck and neck with Jordan’s abilities. Even though Michael Jordan is the “G.O.A.T.”, Lebron James is better than Michael Jordan, making him the greatest basketball player of all time because of the impact he has on his team on and off the court, his shooting, and his playoff stats.
The world is in a state in which numbers can be used
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to measure anything. Putting that into consideration, the NBA is a perfect example to determine the impact players have on their team. According to an article from Basketball Reference, Michael Jordan’s career box plus/minus is 8.09. This stat by Michael Jordan is the second highest box plus/minus score of all time, trailing Lebron James, who currently has a career box plus/minus score of 9.19. Asserted by the NBAstuffer, the box plus/minus, also known as bpm, “relies on a player's box score information and the team's overall performance to estimate a player's performance relative to league average”(Analytics 101). In other words, the higher bpm a player has, the higher his contribution to his team is. Putting this into consideration with the comparison, the stat shows Lebron. [add one more thing]. As you can see, Lebron James’ bpm score shows that he is more important to the teams he has played for, compared to Michael Jordan. The goal of basketball is to score more points than the opposing team by shooting the ball to make more shots.
Shooting percentages are used to measure how many shots a player or team makes through a ratio of how many shots are made to how many shots are taken. Lebron James has proven to be better than Michael Jordan in doing so by shooting better than him. ESPN points out that Michael Jordan’s career field goal and three point percentages are “49.7% and 32.7%”(Michael Jordan Stats). Michael’s shooting percentages are among the highest in basketball history, but he trails Lebron James, who is shooting “50.4% from the field and 34.3% from three point range”(Lebron James Stats). Based on the stats, Lebron is more likely to make a basketball shot than Michael Jordan. Due to the stats, Lebron James is more reliable than Jordan in contributing made shots, resulting in more points being scored. In conclusion, Lebron James is a better shooter than Michael
Jordan. Sometimes, the difference between a great player and an average player is how well they can handle the pressure of carrying their team. In the NBA playoffs, many players who were sensational during the regular season tend to crumble in the playoffs. Michael Jordan and Lebron James are not these type of players, but Lebron has proven that he is better in the playoffs than the man known that’s known to play even greater than great when the pressure is on him. As you can see, the stats clearly show how Lebron James is a much better player than Michael Jordan. However, those who want to deny this would use information such as the fact that For example, Michael Jordan has been to six nba championships and won six championships compared to Lebron’s 3-5 nba finals record. In addition, Michael Jordan has played 15 nba seasons and has scored an outstanding 32,292 points, while Lebron has scored just over 31,000. Another key point would be the fact that when the game is on the line, Jordan wants the ball in his hands, and Lebron tends to pass the ball away, indicating that he doesn’t trust himself to hit the game winning shot. For instance, in game 6 of the 1998 NBA finals, Michael Jordan demanded the ball in the final seconds of the game in order to shoot the game winner, whereas in game 7 of the 2016 NBA finals, Lebron James passed it to a teammate to make the game winner. Although this may look like Lebron is afraid to shoot the ball, what it really demonstrates is Lebron’s high IQ. During that NBA finals game, he passed the ball to Kyrie “black mamba jr.” Irving , an excellent isolation player. In that situation, Lebron understands that Irving is a much better 1 on 1 player, and decides that giving his team the best chance to win is more important than simply putting the ball in his own hands.
Michael Jordan vs Lebron James Michael Jordan, in his prime, was thought of as one of the greatest basketball champions of all time. A shooting guard, standing at six-six, Jordan was able to out play anyone in his position. He started his career at the University of North Carolina, where he helped his team win a national championship. He then was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the 1984-85 season. While playing for the Bulls, Jordan received many awards such as, MVP, five championships, Olympic gold medals, slam dunk contests, and many more defensive and offensive awards.
The source that I used, “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” by Biography.com no authors are listed is a great source that gave me a lot of information that will help me with my reader response essay. I came across this website by entering my search question into Google. After looking through a dozen of articles “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” had the most detailed information of all the links. This article gave me a lot of information that will be correlating to my search question which is this: What major influences did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have in his basketball career? The “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” article had three sections that broke
Steve Nash is considered one of the greatest point guards in the first decade of NBA, and he already became a national hero in Canada based on his tremendous achievement as a professional basketball player. However, according to his interview, Nash was considered a player without sufficient talent to be even a good college player in the United States. No college was willing to offer him a scholarship initially, because he was a Caucasian player from Canada. Caucasian players were widely considered as athletic inferior to African players, and Canada was also considered a country that has few talented basketball players. This is a typical stereotype about Caucasian basketball players in NBA, and usually
During his career, Michael Jordan earned beautiful stats on offense as well as defense due to his scoring abilities, teamwork, and respect for other players in the NBA. On offense, Michael Jordan successfully made an astounding 32,292 point during his career after making 12,192 Field Goals, but attempted 24,537. Michael Jordan was unable to hone in his shot beyond the three point line, which caused him to only make 581 3-Point Field Goals out of his 1,778 attempts, earning him a .327 3-Point Field Goal percentage. This was not the case when it came to his free throw shooting abilities, making a remarkable 7,327 goals out of 8,772 attempts which earned him a .835 free throw percentage. Michael Jordan continued with his offensive skills which allowed him to attain 6,672 assists, and 1,668 offensive rebounds, but regrettably Michael allowed 2,924
Imagine scoring a total of 32, 292 points during a professional basketball career. Not many people in the history of the National Basketball Association can say they have. Michael Jordan can say he has and that he has accomplished many other goals throughout his life (“Michael Jordan Stats”).
The NBA is well known for the number of amazing professional athletes it has had over the years. Some of the most gifted and talented individuals come through the NBA and one of the better-known superstars is none other than Kobe Bryant. For years people have wondered what makes Bryant so successful. The main contributors that lead to Kobe Bryant’s success is his hard work and dedication, his mindset, his natural ability’s and talent, and the people that have helped him throughout his life. Kobe Bryant was very successful in the NBA because of the amount of hard work he has put in, the people in his life, his relentless determination and his god given natural abilities.
“Maybe this guy is god disguised as Michael Jordan” (Michael Jordan). Michael Jordan is clearly the best basketball player to have ever set foot on a basketball court as Larry Bird put it jokingly. He wasn’t the perfect basketball player but he was good enough to surpass the rest of the league as a whole. Because of his superior skills and incomprehensible work ethic, he can be considered an outlier. There is no other player that has accomplished as much as Jordan and will probably never see something like it again.
How do you measure the greatness of the two biggest NBA superstars of all time? Michael Jordan is significantly known for being the ultimate basketball player in NBA history. However, LeBron James is considered one of the top basketball players in the NBA now. There inspiring leadership and unbelievable talent on the court makes it hard for us to choose a winner. James is continuously breaking NBA history, but Jordan's mighty legacy is considered unbreakable. Why can't both exceptional players be valued and appreciated, rather than compared?
This argument is made on the fact that LeBron James has recently become the youngest player to score 20,000 points. Although I agree and congratulate LeBron on his great achievement, it does not make him better than Jordan. Despite LeBron reaching 20,000 points at a younger age, Michael Jordan was able to do it in fewer games. This phenomenon is possible because Michael Jordan went to college for three years whereas LeBron decided to go straight to the NBA out of high school. According to a blog done by the Chicago Bulls “It took Michael Jordan 106 less games to score 20,000 points than LeBron James” (Bulls Blog). No credit should be taken away from LeBron James because what he did to become the youngest player to score 20,000 points is phenomenal but it cannot be used as an argument to say that he is a better player than Michael Jordan because Michael Jordan scored 20,000 points faster than
In conclusion, I would say from the evidence that has been provided Michael Jordan has had a more successful career than Kobe Bryant. But they are still considered one of the best players to ever play in the NBA. And for sure this comparison between the two will continue to happen as the years go one. The world is just apply that these two individuals had the chance to show their talents to everyone around the
Kobe Bryant vs Michael Jordan? This is a controversial question in the NBA league. Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest basketball players of all time who was approaching or even goes beyond Michael Jordan. Both player are well-known to the world and as well as their basketball skills. As a similarity, both players are playing shooting guard and with similar play-style. I grew up with Kobe Bryant as a personal hero and barely knew who Michael Jordan was, now that I have examined the two players objectively. I concede that Michael Jordan’s skills are superior.
Due to the mark Michael Jordan has left on the world as the “G.O.A.T.”, it will be very difficult for any player to surpass his legacy. Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and LeBron James all have similarities of Michael Jordan but, out of all three players James is the closest. LeBron has the most similarities and the potential to surpass Michael Jordan’s legacy with his personality, stats and he popularity on and off the court. Even though James has the potential to surpass his legacy, there is still a very long journey ahead of James if he ever wants to be considered the “G.O.A.T.”.
First, we will celebrate LeBron James’s accomplishments in the NBA. There are over 400 players in the NBA. These players are on the battlefield, fighting day after day because they all know only one can become the Most Valuable Player. LeBron James rose above all, claiming the MVP award, not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 times. Not only is LeBron James an MVP, but he is also a 13-time All-Star player. LeBron James garnered enough votes from the fans, the players, and the media to become an All-Star like a presidential candidate getting enough votes from the voters to become the President.
Few professional basketball athletes’ names are recognizable to the avid, diehard basketball fans and the uninterested layman alike. One of the first, if not the first, athlete to pop up in anyone’s head is the legendary Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan, also known as His Airness, MJ, and Air Jordan, is widely considered the greatest basketball players of all time. Throughout his professional career, Jordan kept changing the game and redefined the entire sport of basketball. However, in 2002, an aspiring athlete by the name of LeBron Raymone James, also known as King James or simply LeBron, immediately rose to prominence and caught the attention of the entire NBA community. The young star quickly proved his tremendous skill, receiving the hype of being the next Michael Jordan. Looking closer, I found that the similarities between the two players are striking.
Lebron James, a basketball icon throughout probably the whole world, is just a freakish athlete on the basketball court that every team within the NBA wishes they could have. His basketball road to the NBA wasn’t easy, but with his work ethic and perserverance, there was no way he was stopping. The life he lived as a kid was similar to some with family issues, but with basketball he was a high school celebrity that lived a life not every athlete at that age can.