The ongoing GOAT debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron James has reached its peak in the current era of the NBA. Over the years, LeBron has accomplished numerous remarkable feats, including surpassing the NBA’s all-time points record in 2023. Despite this, some seasoned players of the league, like Julius ‘Dr. J’ Erving, have refrained from including LeBron James in their top 10 list of best NBA players. For many, Michael Jordan still embodies the epitome of a basketball player. A telling incident occurred in 2016, seven years before Dr. J’s remarks on the GOAT debate. Former NBA star Patrick Ewing stated that Michael Jordan was the GOAT, not LeBron James. During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, Ewing expressed his opinion on James, essentially implying that the Lakers superstar does not match up to Michael Jordan.
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Michael Jordan and LeBron James are undoubtedly two of their era’s greatest players. However, many veterans and older players do not like the comparison between His Airness and King James. They like to stick to the opinion that MJ had revolutionized basketball by being the greatest player in the league.
Patrick Ewing had once claimed LeBron James is not the same as Michael Jordan
In the late 1980s and ’90s, Patrick Ewing had his fair share of experience playing against the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan. Although Jordan was his rival, he never seemed to deviate from the opinion that Jordan was the greatest player ever, even greater than LeBron James.
Back in 2016, Ewing was appointed as the Associate Head Coach of the Charlotte Hornets by Jordan. In an appearance at the time on the Dan Patrick Show, Ewing described how MJ was still his old ultra-competitive self, even in his late 50s. Later, when placing his opinion for the GOAT debate, Ewing always favored MJ over LeBron James.
“LeBron James is a great player, he’s a great player of this era, but he’s not Michael Jordan. It’s two different animal. Michael was a killer, he’s an assassin. LeBron is more of a facilitator. He’s the guy that you’re gonna give the ball and he’s probably, he’s thinking shoot first before pass. Where Michael, you give him the ball, he’s thinking he’s gonna score 50 on you, and then he’s gonna pass. Michael Jordan was the best player, the greatest player in my era. There’s been a lot of great players in this league and it’s hard to give one player that best ever crown, but I can say in my era, Michael Jordan was the best player in my era and he’s, I mean, I guess Kobe came the closest to him. LeBron is great, but he’s not Michael Jordan.”
The Kobe comparison by Ewing is definitely on point, given he used to imitate every aspect of Michael Jordan. From his style of speaking to the media to scoring points, Kobe was on par with Jordan throughout his career. Kobe’s 81-point game is one of his best performance displays, closest to MJ’s point-scoring abilities.
LeBron might be the most outstanding player currently, but several aspects make him miss out against Jordan. Although James is the current points leader in the league, he has not won two three-peats like Jordan. LeBron had to face the most upsets in NBA Finals compared to Jordan, who was undefeated in every Final he had played.
Dominique Wilkins snubbed LeBron James for Kobe Bryant in his comparison to Michael Jordan
In the Michael Jordan comparison, Patrick Ewing was not the only person to rank Kobe Bryant higher than LeBron James. In a statement on Quentin Richarson’s podcast, Wilkins affirmed that Kobe Bryant was the second-best player in basketball after Michael Jordan. However, it’s worth noting how Wilkins never mentioned LBJ’s name in the conversation or claimed anyone to be the outright GOAT.
For Wilkins, Kobe and Jordan were the top players on his list. He was trying to bring Kobe into the conversation, which is often ignored in the highly media-fueled LeBron vs. Jordan debate. Before we keep comparing LeBron and MJ, we should never forget how the Black Mamba was the closest to dethroning Jordan with his one three-peat and five NBA titles.
