Tiebreakers.
That’s what LeBron James is playing for. Tiebreakers for the undecided voters still trying to figure out how to measure his campaign against Michael Jordan’s.
The hardened Jordan loyalists will never waver, just as the hardened LeBron loyalists will never budge. Whatever happens in Philadelphia over the next one, two or three years won’t compel them to jump from one side to the other.
Advertisement
But there are a lot of independents out there, including yours truly, who have watched both careers and still bounce back and forth between Jordan, six-time champ with the Chicago Bulls, and James in a sports bar debate that will never truly be settled. And that’s the beauty of the whole thing. Ranking titanic figures from different eras might be a fruitless and silly exercise to some, but this type of debate is also the one thing sports is supposed to be.
Fun.
At the same time, the case of Jordan v. James sure seems to be serious business to the 41-year-old billionaire who just agreed to a pay cut of nearly $49 million to help the Philadelphia 76ers try to win their first championship since 1983 and, of larger long-term consequence, to enhance his case as the greatest of the great.
How do we know this? James has said a number of times over the years his goal is to go down as the GOAT, and he has said multiple times he believes he has already earned that distinction. In fact, James apparently believes he scaled that mountain in the 2016 NBA Finals — a decade ago — when he made history by leading the Cleveland Cavaliers out of a 3-1 series hole to beat the 73-win Golden State Warriors.
“That one right there made me the greatest player of all time,” James said in a 2018 episode of the “More Than An Athlete” series.
He got ahead of himself there, no question, and probably knows it. Eight years later, James still has work to do.
That’s why he announced last week that after 23 NBA seasons, including eight with the Los Angeles Lakers, he still loves the game enough to continue on. He said his Sixers signing had nothing to do with family or (clearly) money. He said he wanted to win again.
Left unsaid was how perfect his Philly pivot was in his own grand scheme of things.
It’s not surprising that such a high-IQ player made such a high-IQ move to close his career. The New York Knicks took themselves out of play by winning their first title since 1973, forcing James off his first choice (according to his agent and longtime friend Rich Paul) and leaving him searching for the next best option among Cleveland, Miami, Golden State, Minnesota and Philadelphia.
Advertisement
Out of Akron, Ohio, James had already ended a biblical drought for his hometown Cavaliers and had won two of his four titles with the Heat. He had to escape the West and get away from San Antonio and Oklahoma City, and he needed a legit contender that offered the kind of maximum legacy impact the Knicks would’ve offered had they failed to win it all.
The Sixers were selling a 43-year drought and Jaylen Brown as part of a loaded roster in a sports-crazed city just south of New York. If James is almost certainly not going to match Jordan’s six rings, Philly represented a perfect opportunity for LJ to challenge MJ with his fifth.
Championship rings are not used as a measuring stick only by overcaffeinated fans and simpleminded columnists and talk-show hosts. In his final days as a New York Yankee, Derek Jeter said his friend Jordan “constantly reminds me that he has six and I have five.” The shortstop said years earlier his only goal was to beat Yogi Berra’s record for championships; Berra later teased Jeter about his 10-5 lead in World Series rings.
Immediately after Kobe Bryant won his fifth title with the Lakers, he famously said of his former teammate, “Just got one more than Shaq. So you can take that to the bank.” When Jordan was once asked by a summer camper to pick between James and Bryant, he replied, “Would I rank LeBron over Kobe? In terms of best of all time? No. There’s something about five that beats three.”
It’s a good thing for Jordan that Bill Russell isn’t often mentioned in GOAT conversations, because there’s something about 11 that beats six. So, even in the team sport that allows the individual superstar the most control over his or her fate (with only five players on the court), it can’t come down only to ring counts.
Yes, Jordan has a 6-4 lead over James in titles, a 6-4 lead in Finals MVPs and a 5-4 lead in regular-season MVPs. (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar owns a record six regular-season MVPs and merits a more prominent place in the discussion.) But having played eight more seasons than Jordan did, James blows him away on all longevity fronts as the league’s most prolific winner (a record 1,236 combined regular-season and postseason victories to Jordan’s 825) and scorer (a record 51,961 combined regular-season and postseason points to Jordan’s 38,279).
Advertisement
When measured against the modern perimeter icons who preceded him, James beats Jordan and Bryant on points scored, Magic Johnson on assists dished and Larry Bird on titles won.
Durability matters. So does one’s overall body of work.
a.showcase-link-container {
display: flex;
gap: 20px;
flex-direction: column;
align-items: center;
padding: 20px 0px;
border-top: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);
border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);
text-decoration: none;
color: #121212;
cursor: pointer;
.showcase-link {
font-family: nyt-franklin;
font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 13.8px;
letter-spacing: 1.1px;
text-transform: uppercase;
}
.showcase-link-image {
border-radius: 8px;
object-fit: cover;
width: 200px;
height: 150px;
margin: 0px;
@media (max-width: 600px) {
width: 120px;
height: 120px;
}
}
.showcase-link-inner-content {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
gap: 16px;
width: 100%;
}
.showcase-link-text-content {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
gap: 20px;
justify-content: center;
@media (max-width: 600px) {
gap: 8px;
}
}
.showcase-link-title {
font-family: nyt-cheltenham;
font-size: 24px;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 500;
line-height: 120%; /* 24px */
letter-spacing: 0.01px;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
overflow: hidden;
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;
-webkit-line-clamp: 3;
@media (max-width: 600px) {
font-size: 16px;
}
}
.showcase-link-excerpt {
font-family: nyt-imperial;
font-size: 16px;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 400;
line-height: 139%; /* 19.46px */
color: #323232;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
overflow: hidden;
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;
-webkit-line-clamp: 4;
@media (max-width: 600px) {
font-size: 12px;
line-height: 121%;
}
}
}
.showcase-link-inputs {
.showcase-link-input {
width: 100%;
font-size: 1rem;
background-color: white;
margin-bottom: 12px;
}
.showcase-link-indent {
margin-left: 25px;
}
option {
width: 100%;
}
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
.native-mobile a.showcase-link-container {
background-color: #121212;
color: #f0f0ee;
.showcase-link-excerpt {
color: #c4c4c0;
}
}
}
// Remove all onclicks on imgs for apps to prevent image zoom on click
document.querySelectorAll(‘.showcase-link-image’).forEach((img) => img.removeAttribute(‘onclick’));
In LeBron’s second-favorite sport, golf, I had Jack Nicklaus and his record 18 major titles ranked ahead of Tiger Woods and his 14 majors around the time Woods was telling people that he was done, that his injured back was too far gone. And then somehow Tiger emerged from a spinal fusion surgery to win the 2018 Tour Championship, the 2019 Masters and the Zozo Championship in Japan to tie Sam Snead’s record of 82 PGA Tour victories, nine more than Nicklaus’ total. That was enough, in my mind, to push Woods ahead of the Golden Bear despite the 18-15 majors deficit. Tiger was more dominant at his peak against deeper fields.
Down the road, we’ll surely be having a similar conversation about Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes. But for now we are wondering if LeBron can break his own tie with Brady — 10 conference championships — and lead the Sixers to their first finals appearance in more than a quarter century. If James actually helps them win a championship, wrote The Athletic’s David Aldridge, “His case for being the greatest player in NBA history would receive a turbo boost.”
ESPN analyst Brian Windhorst had a different view on all this, insisting that not a single Jordan supporter will suddenly bow to King James if he becomes the first player to win a title with four franchises.
Though I ordinarily agree with Windhorst and respect his vast institutional knowledge of James and the league, I’m in a different space on this one. Picture LeBron in his advanced age tormenting the Knicks one more time, denying them a two-peat, before beating the Spurs or Thunder in the finals.
That would be an incredible and profoundly emotional scene. Brady won his seventh Super Bowl title and fifth Super Bowl MVP award at 43, but given how much an NBA player has to use his legs compared with a pocket quarterback, a significant contribution to a Sixers title at 42 might just top it.
a.showcase-link-container {
display: flex;
gap: 20px;
flex-direction: column;
align-items: center;
padding: 20px 0px;
border-top: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);
border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);
text-decoration: none;
color: #121212;
cursor: pointer;
.showcase-link {
font-family: nyt-franklin;
font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 13.8px;
letter-spacing: 1.1px;
text-transform: uppercase;
}
.showcase-link-image {
border-radius: 8px;
object-fit: cover;
width: 200px;
height: 150px;
margin: 0px;
@media (max-width: 600px) {
width: 120px;
height: 120px;
}
}
.showcase-link-inner-content {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
gap: 16px;
width: 100%;
}
.showcase-link-text-content {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
gap: 20px;
justify-content: center;
@media (max-width: 600px) {
gap: 8px;
}
}
.showcase-link-title {
font-family: nyt-cheltenham;
font-size: 24px;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 500;
line-height: 120%; /* 24px */
letter-spacing: 0.01px;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
overflow: hidden;
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;
-webkit-line-clamp: 3;
@media (max-width: 600px) {
font-size: 16px;
}
}
.showcase-link-excerpt {
font-family: nyt-imperial;
font-size: 16px;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 400;
line-height: 139%; /* 19.46px */
color: #323232;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
overflow: hidden;
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;
-webkit-line-clamp: 4;
@media (max-width: 600px) {
font-size: 12px;
line-height: 121%;
}
}
}
.showcase-link-inputs {
.showcase-link-input {
width: 100%;
font-size: 1rem;
background-color: white;
margin-bottom: 12px;
}
.showcase-link-indent {
margin-left: 25px;
}
option {
width: 100%;
}
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
.native-mobile a.showcase-link-container {
background-color: #121212;
color: #f0f0ee;
.showcase-link-excerpt {
color: #c4c4c0;
}
}
}
// Remove all onclicks on imgs for apps to prevent image zoom on click
document.querySelectorAll(‘.showcase-link-image’).forEach((img) => img.removeAttribute(‘onclick’));
Either way, a Philadelphia breakthrough would mean LeBron had won championships on the East Coast and the West Coast and in the Midwest and the South. He would have Jordan surrounded.
Advertisement
Not that his devoted base would ever concede. The Jordan and James camps will continue to pound away at each other from their baselines, back and forth, making the rest of us who are undecided feel like chair umpires at a tennis match, head on a swivel.
But in my scorebook, if these new Philadelphia 76ers win the big one, it’s game, set and match for Mr. James.