It is official: LeBron James is the all-time leading scorer in NBA history. Amazingly, The King has managed to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record on Tuesday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Even if LeBron could not lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a victory, losing the game 133-130, he was the man of the night as celebrations rained down once he nailed a fadeaway mid-range jumper to become the greatest scorer in NBA history.
No doubt, LeBron James is one of the most iconic players of all time and has had a once-in-a-lifetime career. Nobody could have ever imagined that James would play for 20 seasons at a superstar level and score over 38,000 points in his career. By most accounts, LeBron exceeded expectations when he arrived in the NBA straight from high school. There is no doubt that The King is a top-5 player of all time and must be hailed for his incredible achievements, which include not only the all-time scoring total but also his 4 NBA championships, 4 Finals MVPs, 4 MVP awards, and 19 All-Star appearances.
We will never see another LeBron James again. At 6’9” and 250 lbs, James is built like a locomotive and has the most spectacular athleticism we have ever seen. He took his physical gifts and added to them with incredible basketball IQ, passing ability, and an unrivaled work ethic to keep his body in shape. This is a time to hail LeBron James as one of the greats, and as expected, the GOAT debate is heating up more than ever and might be over in the mind of LeBron James himself.
As amazing as LeBron’s achievement was on Tuesday night, he is still not the greatest player of all time. Specifically, he is not on Michael Jordan’s level as an individual basketball player, and there are a host of reasons why. It is widely believed that MJ is the GOAT because of his dominance and incredible list of accolades, and that has to be the fact when looking at the major reasons why LeBron simply cannot match His Airness. We even compare Michael Jordan and LeBron James’ careers and their NBA Finals performances, seeing a clear winner in both comparisons.
LeBron James has to be considered the greatest player of all time in the category of longevity, but he simply cannot match Jordan in terms of skills, impact, and accolades. Without further ado, here are the 7 reasons why LeBron James is not the greatest player of all time.
1 Scoring Title Compared To 10
LeBron James holds the all-time record for most points scored all-time. That is an exemplary achievement that nobody would have ever thought would happen, especially since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played 20 years in the NBA at such a high level. LeBron’s achievement is amazing but is mainly due to longevity above raw scoring skills. Over 20 seasons, James has only won 1 scoring title, and that came in the 2007-08 season when he dropped 30.0 PPG for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In fact, LeBron has averaged at least 30 PPG 4 times in his career. Meanwhile, Michael Jordan has won a whopping 10 scoring titles, averaging at least 30 PPG 8 separate times. Jordan’s career-high came in 1987 when he posted an incredible 37.1 PPG, with his second-best season coming in 1988 when he dropped 35.0 PPG. There is no player who comes close to Jordan in terms of total scoring titles, with Wilt Chamberlain the closest with 7 scoring titles. Not even the player who once scored 100 points in a single game managed to win more scoring titles than the dominant shooting guard. As great as LeBron’s all-time scoring achievement is, that is a matter of longevity, as Jordan played 5 seasons less and had to endure two retirement phases.
Not to mention, MJ is the all-time leader in career PPG average with 30.1 PPG, as LeBron James stands 5th with 27.2 PPG behind Michael, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, and Kevin Durant. With 10 scoring titles to his name, MJ has one major advantage over The King, and that will remain forever.
Does Leaving Your Team And Joining Superteams Really Count?
Another reason why LeBron is not better than Jordan is how each player dealt with adversity. LeBron James had a very average squad in Cleveland the first time around, but so did Jordan. Jordan faced the exact same criticism that LeBron faced when he was not winning a chip with his original team, and all great players went through it. The difference is how they dealt with adversity.
LeBron left Cleveland multiple times to join forces and create three separate superteams. The first was in Miami alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, only to return to Cleveland once a terrific Kyrie Irving was there alongside Kevin Love. LeBron then joined the Los Angeles Lakers because he (and everyone else) knew Anthony Davis was Lakers bound at some point. Even today, The King has tried harder than anyone else to recruit other stars, and the latest one was Russell Westbrook. While LeBron broke new grounds as a player who took his career into his own hands, Jordan felt he was good enough to win where he was and did not need to run to join superteams. That is why his 6 rings are even more valuable than LeBron’s 4.
Most importantly, Jordan never decided to take an easier path to join other great Hall of Fame players in his time, such as Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, and Patrick Ewing. Rather, he stayed the course and ended up defeating each of the best players in their time. Jordan is famous for preventing the likes of Barkley and Ewing from ever winning an NBA title because he wanted to prove he was the best. LeBron does not mind joining forces with other top players such as Wade, Bosh, and Irving, and that makes his mentality incomparable to Jordan’s.
5 MVP Awards Are Better Than 4
LeBron James is regarded as the greatest regular-season performer ever because of his ability to do so much on the court for his teammates. The King won an impressive 4 MVP awards as a result, and that ranks 3rd all-time (tied with Wilt Chamberlain) behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6), Michael Jordan (5), and Bill Russell (5). Obviously, Michael managed to win more MVP awards than LeBron James, something people seem to forget.
MJ won 5 MVP awards, and each of them came in iconic seasons. No doubt, Michael’s greatest season came in 1988 when he dropped 35 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 5.8 APG, and 3.2 SPG. His field goal percentage of 53.5% was also a career-high. Putting up these numbers with that type of efficiency was almost unprecedented from a perimeter player.
In that season alone, Michael won his first MVP Award, made his first NBA All-Defensive First Team, and won his only Defensive Player of the Year Award. That was only one of five MVP awards, as his other achievements normally came with NBA titles and Finals MVP awards as well. Jordan could have won every MVP award every season of his career and still managed to usurp LeBron James in that category.
James’ 4 MVP awards are amazing, but his greatest argument has always been his ability to dominate in the regular season. But Michael managed to dominate more than LeBron in the regular season without needing the longevity that The King had, and of course, we all know who had more success in the postseason.
6 NBA Finals Awards Are A Lot Better Than 4
MVP awards are nice, but Finals MVP awards are far better. Guess who won more Finals MVP awards and did it with one franchise? Michael Jordan won a whopping 6 Finals MVP awards through two separate 3-peats, while LeBron James managed 4 Finals MVPs with 3 different franchises. Obviously, 6 is more than 4, and it is amazing to consider that Jordan did it while going 6-0 in the NBA Finals.
Jordan’s greatest collection of accolades comes in the form of NBA championships and Finals MVP awards, as those should be the highest-ranked achievements among all players. No regular season award can compare to championships and Finals MVPs, and Jordan has the edge in those as well. LeBron’s 4 Finals MVP awards are certainly impressive as it ranks 2nd all-time behind MJ, but second place is what James is in right now.
With a whopping 6 Finals MVP awards, Michael Jordan has a massive edge over LeBron James. How could a player be a GOAT when there is someone with more NBA championships and more Finals MVP awards? It does not seem right, and it would be illogical to crown The King the title of being the best when Michael had more postseason success (along with more regular season success with 5 MVPs).
A Shocking Failure In The 2011 NBA Finals
The biggest disaster in the great career of LeBron James was his 2011 meltdown against the Dallas Mavericks. In fact, it might be the biggest failure of any elite star’s career in NBA history. We all saw it, and we all witnessed an epic collapse as we have never seen before. A superstar as dominant and physically powerful as LeBron shrunk to the size of an infant in that series, as he could not impact a single game while Dirk Nowitzki ripped his heart out. LeBron James needed to learn how to win, something that Michael Jordan never had to experience.
MJ was a winner of the highest order, and he never failed in any Finals appearance as LeBron did. While many will claim it is impressive enough for LeBron to even make a Finals, he had Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. The Heat was heavily favored every year the Big Three were together, so this moment in LeBron’s career was inexcusable. This black mark alone damages LeBron’s reputation when talking about GOAT status.
6-0 NBA Finals Record Ends The GOAT Debate
One of the biggest reasons LeBron can’t come close to Jordan as the GOAT is the Finals record. MJ went a flawless 6-0 with 6 Finals MVPs without ever letting a series go to a Game 7. This means that whenever Jordan was in the Finals, he killed off his competition and blew them out of the water each time. MJ was the king of the NBA and will forever be the king of basketball. Nobody was hungrier and wanted to win more than MJ, not even LeBron James.
LeBron is truly a nice guy at heart and a tremendous team player, but he doesn’t have Jordan’s obsessed killer mentality. LeBron’s 3-6 Finals record is not all on him, although at least 2 losses are very suspect. His losses against Dallas and San Antonio were by shocking margins, as LeBron looked outsmarted and outplayed in each series. While he shouldn’t take much blame for the losses to Golden State, getting swept in his last Finals appearance was also very surprising considering LeBron’s status.
Overall, Jordan will forever be known as the man who single-handedly killed the NBAs competition for 6 years. Two 3-peats with 6 rings without ever playing in a Game 7 should put to bed any comparisons between him and any player, including LeBron James, forever. No player will equal what MJ did because he simply has done too much for the sport, and LeBron James will have to remain fighting for second place in the all-time rankings.
The King Is Special, But His Airness Was Inhuman
The King, LeBron James, is one special athlete. The fact that he played for two decades and dominated the court as an all-around talent is truly amazing, and his accolades speak for themselves, as he is forever a top-5 player of all time. Despite all of this being true, there is just simply no way James can compare to Michael Jordan. Even without the presence of social media, MJ was a rockstar. Everyone wanted to be like Mike, as he was literally the most famous man on the planet.
LeBron is the face of the NBA and has been for a long time, but at one point, MJ was the face of the universe. Everything he did broke the news and had he played today, it would have been overkill. Michael’s aura when he walked into a place was surreal, and many athletes often described him as a floating figure. Somewhat a man of mystery, Jordan was also not as boisterous and in your face as LeBron is, yet attracted this much attention.
Another example would be how little MJ spoke about himself, as he let his arrogance show on the basketball court when he ripped his opponents’ hearts out. LeBron James, on more than one occasion, has often praised himself instead of letting others do it for him. In other words, Michael Jordan never had to say he was the GOAT, he just was. There is nothing wrong with basking in your greatness, especially because LeBron is an all-time great, but he just can’t compete with Michael Jordan.
MJ had natural charisma, a natural ability to dominate, and a killer instinct that was shared by no one else. With 6 championships, 6 Finals MVPs, 5 MVPs, 10 scoring titles, and a Defensive Player of the Year award, Jordan also has more accolades than James. A more impactful scorer, leader, and global rockstar until this day, there will never be another Michael Jordan, and it would be unfair to compare anyone to him, including the all-time leading scorer which is LeBron James.