Essay Example: Who is the Greatest Basketball Player of All Time?

This is a question that has long divided fans of the sport, with most arguments focusing on Michael Jordan and LeBron James, widely considered to be the two best players to ever step foot on a basketball court.  Seemingly everyone has a take on this issue, from television pundits to former players to casual fans.  This is a difficult question to answer, as both players played in different eras, for different amounts of time, and had different playing styles.  Because of this, I do not believe that there is any objective way to determine who the GOAT (greatest of all time)  is, but I believe that the facts present a very compelling argument for Michael Jordan being the greatest basketball player of all time, with greatness being a subjective measure of a player’s contribution to winning basketball.

One thing that separates a good player from a great player is how he performs on the biggest stages, and there is no stage in basketball bigger than the NBA Finals and the playoffs leading up to it.  In 15 seasons in the NBA, Michael Jordan made the playoffs 13 times, winning six NBA championships in six Finals appearances, being named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of all six.  For comparison, LeBron James has played 19 seasons, appearing in the playoffs 15 times where he has won four championships in 10 appearances, being named Finals MVP four times.  In his six Finals losses, James’ teams were swept twice and lost in five games twice, none of his Finals losses went to seven games.  It should also be noted that nine of LeBron’s Finals appearances were with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat out of the Eastern Conference, which has been considered to be inferior to the Western Conference throughout most of his career, and that his most recent championship came in the Orlando Bubble after the NBA had been shut down for over four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  While basketball is a team sport, the fact is that Michael Jordan led his teams to far more success on the biggest stage and advanced stats prove his contribution to his teams’ success in the playoffs.  In the playoffs, Jordan leads LeBron in win shares per 48 minutes, box plus/minus, and value over replacement player, which all give a numerical value to a player’s contribution to winning basketball.  

Not only is Michael Jordan a better playoff performer than LeBron James, he is also a more accomplished regular season player and leads LeBron in the aforementioned advanced stats in the regular season as well.  In his 15 seasons, Jordan has been named MVP five times to LeBron’s four, he has been named to nine all-defensive teams to LeBron’s six, and has been named defensive player of the year once while LeBron has never received the honor.  The one accolade in which LeBron has an advantage over Jordan is his 17 all-NBA team selections as opposed to Jordan’s 11.  While this might seem to suggest that LeBron is a better overall player, he has also played for 19 seasons and counting while Jordan played for just 15, two of which came after he was retired for three years and decided to come out of retirement to play for the Washington Wizards.  

It seems that many arguments in favor of LeBron are based on the fact that he has surpassed or could surpass Jordan in terms of his raw statistical totals and number of accolades.  This is an unfair argument seeing as Jordan only played 15 seasons, while LeBron has played 19 seasons and counting.  LeBron came into the league straight out of high school as many other top prospects of the time did, Jordan entered the league after three seasons of college basketball at the University of North Carolina, as players of the time were expected to play in college first.  Michael Jordan also played in a more physical era of the NBA so it wouldn’t be surprising if the physical wear and tear played a role in his shorter career length.

Ultimately, Michael Jordan accomplished more than LeBron James for the amount of time he played.  His dominance during the 1990s remains unmatched in NBA history.  LeBron James is a great player in his own right, and should be considered the second best player of all time behind Jordan, but he isn’t Jordan.  The fact that LeBron has had a career worthy of being compared to Jordan’s is an amazing accomplishment, and one should be able to appreciate the greatness of both players while recognizing that one was just a little bit greater than the other.