league is much different today than it was 15 years ago.

it's tough to compare the two - do you go by age? do you go by #'s, or do you go strictly by rings?

i think at this point, we may just have to say both are/were great and leave it at that. it's tough to compare a young kid to a guy we saw destroy the league in his prime.

one thing i will say, lebron is suffering for things he did not do.

cleveland got hosed by boozer.
and then both ray allen AND micheal redd were idiots and passed up a shot at signing with cleveland outright.

lebron + ray/redd + boozer = dynasty.

Jordan had better coach in PHil.

Jordan was a highlight film before Phil got in his head.

I think Jax does not get enough credit for the job he did bringing Jordan to the next level.

Like Briggy said, Jordan was perhaps the strongest mental athlete I have ever seen.

Lebron while physically stronger at age 22 might never get that mental edge. Is it developed, is it genetic? Don't know. Jordan was also blessed with being vertually injury free and was able to play in pain when he was.

No doubt being 22 and carrying your team to the finals is impressive and that should not be lost on anyone even though the road to the finals was nicely paved due to injury in Washington and NJ (Mikki More was teh Center!!!!!!) and they got by Detroit which was impressive.

Posted by BRIGGS:

Posted by MS:

This series is terrible, but if you listen to people trashing this kid saying he is no jordan it's a little bit of a stretch....Lebron at his age is the better player, period! The kid has only been in the league four years, didn't go to school and reached his first finals in a watered down east we all realize this. But it took MJ 8 season and he had three seasons under dean smith

And we can argue all we want about how good the guys on cleveland are, which they are not. Curry is better than Z, Lee is better than Gooden, and I really think that if you give nate of crawford open shots they will hit them.

Look at what MJ had during his first championship run

Horace Grant 14pts 10rbs 1.2stls 1.6blks
Pippen 21pts 7.7rbs 7ass 1.9stls 1.1blks
BJ 9pts Paxson 9pts Cartwright 9pts

Grant and Pippen were both lockdown defenders, and the lakers had a good team not a great team when MJ won his first. I might be in the minority here, but listen to guys like Francessa on the WFAN and every other casual commentator i think we are being a little hard on the kid.

I think MJ's mentality sets him apart.

Very much agree.

LeBron might have the physical tools to be better but what set MJ apart from everyone was his mental edge. MJ was like an assassin. He seemed to take as much joy out of watching someone lose as he did winning.

They need to get him help and rethink how they use him. If they employed a triangle offense then the role players would be better served. The ball movement in the Cavs offense is just no fluid enough to take advantage of what they have. The Big Z is a hell of a player but they don't use him well enough.

They need more BOOBIE!

Kudos to the Spurs for being the next champ. The O'brian trophy was not Lebrons to lose, There are 4-5 teams out west that would pick the Cavs apart also.

I haven't seen Lebron hit the outside shot that is a dagger in his opponents- in fact, he's had some big shots that he's missed.

Jordan never seemed to miss down the stretch.

Jordan definitely the better defender.

If I'm picking one of the two as 4 year college kids, I'm picking Jordan because I think he's just the stronger competitor.

everyone is a jordan expert, jordan gets that call and is shooting three free throws. Tough to get by the best inside outside defensive punch in the league.

This is from Bill Simmons, great read:

To LeBron James, who coasted through the Skills Challenge on All-Star Saturday and played the All-Star Game with the uplifting, charismatic intensity of a female porn star trying to break one of those "most male partners in one afternoon" records. Could we end up putting him in the "Too Much, Too Soon" Pantheon some day? Will he become the basketball version of Eddie Murphy, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and every other celeb who became famous too quickly and eventually burned out?

Mark J. Terrill

Before he becomes a global icon, maybe LeBron should work a little harder on his game.

Here's what I know. I had four conversations with connected NBA people over the weekend that centered around the same themes: LeBron isn't playing nearly as hard as he did last season; it looks like his only goal right now is to get his coach fired; he's regressing as a basketball player (especially his passing skills and his shot selection); he made a huge mistake firing his agent and turning his career over to his buddies back home (all of whom are in over their heads); he was a much bigger problem during the Olympics than anyone realized; he doesn't seem to be enjoying himself anymore; he has an overrated sense of his own worth and his own impact in the sports world (as witnessed by the ESPN interview last week when he answered the "What are your goals?" question with two words: "Global icon"); he's been protected by magazine fluff pieces and buddy-buddy TV interviews for far too long; he doesn't have the same relentless drive to keep dominating everyone like Wade and Kobe have; and basically, we're much closer to LeBron re-enacting the career arc of Martina Hingis, Eric Lindros and Junior Griffey than anyone realizes. This will evolve into THE dominant NBA story of the next two months. You watch.

To Magic Johnson, who finally got the memo that he's one of the five greatest players of all time and shouldn't be crammed in some throwback uniform disgracing himself in a half-assed shooting contest on All-Star Saturday.

For three social trends that I noticed in Miami (for the Super Bowl) and Vegas last weekend:

1. A surprising number of people wear sunglasses at all times, even inside clubs so dark that people can barely see even if they're NOT wearing sunglasses. I can't figure this out. Maybe Jim McMahon was more ahead of his time than we realized.

2. Instead of playing full songs, clubs now play one-minute samples of songs and barrage you with choruses. I like this trend because you never know what's coming next, although it's depressing that our attention spans have been whittled down to the degree that clubs feel obligated to change songs every 60 seconds. Whatever.

3. Remember when Britney and Christina Aguilera ushered in the Let's Dress Like Hookers Era, and attractive women across America stopped wearing bras -- and eventually, underwear -- followed by every married guy over 30 kicking themselves that they sowed their oats in the Let's Wear Baggy Sweaters, Eat & Be Scared of AIDS Era? Well, like with all great eras, there's been a massive backlash. Now women of all shapes and sizes wear clothes they shouldn't be wearing, which means you're about 100,000 times more likely to see saggy butt cheeks, exposed pot bellies, flabby arms and love handles than you were in 2001. It's legitimately, unequivocally horrifying -- a full-fledged onslaught against every man's libido. Now I'm thinking that women should have to apply to dress like a hooker, then be forced to renew that license every two years like it's a driver's license. Let's protect the country from itself. On the bright side, now that every female in Vegas dresses like a hooker, it's impossible to tell the real hookers from the fake ones, which means we'll probably have a Vegas-themed game show called "Hooker or Looker" some day.


Things have changed since then, but you see what the kid goes through in the media, after they say he had a really off year leading his team to 50 wins with the following line:

27.3pts 6.7rbs 6ass 1.6stl 47%fg

We are comparing them at the age of 22 not when its all said and done. And I suspect that lebron would have a pretty good chance of winning with one of the top 40 players ever to play the game next to him (best all around guy in the league), with the best rebounder of his era, and kukoc who is vastly underatted.

Jordan was in a class by himself but imagine if your supporting cast was the following during his title run from 96-99

Toni Kuckoc 13pts 5rbs 4ass
Scottie Pippen 20pts 6rbd 6ass 1.8stls
Dennis Rodman 6pts 15rbs
Ron Harper 9pts 4rbs 4ass 1.3 stls

The cavs have no one on this team that compares to anyone on jordans team, not one player

It's a flawed question. Is Lebron better than Jordan at 22? He has an argument there. Is Lebron better than Jordan? To me that's implying is the best of Lebron so far better than Jordan at his best. That's clearly no argument.