The debate of who’s the better player out of LeBron James and Michael Jordan has been going on for way too long. Different players, analysts, and even legends have had different takes on who the greatest is. A former Knicks coach picked both LeBron AND Jordan but in two completely different scenarios.
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Jeff Van Gundy made an appearance on Mark Jackson’s Podcast, Come and Talk 2 Me. When the conversation moved to the ever-popular ‘Jordan-LeBron debate’, Gundy picked Bron as the player who had a more illustrious career, taking longevity and the number of accolades won over MJ. But he did pick Air Jordan in a single-game elimination situation.
“I don’t think you can argue that the greatest basketball career to date and still adding to it is LeBron James…With all he’s been able to accomplish, all the records, and really the longevity is just an incredible feat.”
In his 21 seasons in the League, James has made a whopping 20 All-Stars (one more than the great Kareem Abdul Jabbar) and 20 All-NBA teams. He also has scored the most points in the NBA ever, currently standing at 40,474 (in the regular season), breaking yet another Kareem record. To add onto this, he has 4 MVPS, 4 championships, and 4 Finals MVPs. Van Gundy choosing LeBron in terms of the greatest career ever does not seem like a bad choice at all.
Even at 39 years of age, James seems to have plenty left in the tank. He has consistently been on the top of his game year in and year out, hasn’t had any career-threatening injury, and is still a consensus top 10 player in the league despite being the oldest active player right now. So one really cannot fault Jeff Van Gundy for picking LBJ over MJ in terms of accolades and longevity.
But when talking about Michael Jordan, Jeff Van Gundy said,
“The best player in any one game to win it…There’s a lot of ones that you can go with but my personal one, I would take Jordan to win one game.”
He further explained what made him pick Michael Jordan in this situation.
“I think the combination of athleticism, skill, will was something.”
Jeff Van Gundy took his 55-point game against the Knicks as an example of when Jordan came out of retirement after playing baseball. But apart from that, MJ did have the sheer will and drive to win at all costs. He would not only push his teammates to be better but at the end of the day, would take the ball and drive to the rim himself to get things done.
Looking back at it, Van Gundy may have taken the safe approach, with both players in different situations, but sometimes the safest approach is also the most appropriate. It is virtually impossible to choose one over the other, and as always, comparison is the thief of joy.
While JVG had a perfect answer for the James-Jordan debate, his latest claim is refuted by something he said a while back regarding Stephen Curry.
Jeff Van Gundy picks Curry over LeBron James
Jeff Van Gundy’s response on who’s the better player indicates he has love for both NBA icons. But in choosing a player for the ‘Player of the Decade’ honors, Gundy went with Stephen Curry over LeBron James.
Granted that both Curry and LeBron have had similar careers in terms of winning NBA titles, both players have put up somewhat of the same numbers in scoring and have an equally even fanbase.
Now, one could nitpick over certain stats of the reach of their fame and popularity, but choosing Curry over Bron does seem surprising since he has immense love and respect for The King and what he’s been doing in the league for the past 20 years.
