Better Athlete MJ or LeBron?

[CousinOfDeath]

this turned into a youtube video war...

[High 5]

This is ridiculous. You guys are pretending like MJ and Lebron are the two most athletic guys in the history of the league. It's not even close to being true. They probably wouldn't even be in the top 20.

Lebron's athleticism is being over-rated and MJ's even more so.

For Example, is Lebron more athletic than a young Shawn Marion ? Nope.

LOL what? Could you please explain how Shawn Marion at any age is more athletic than LeBron? And I would ask you to name 20 better athletes than LeBron and MJ (LeBron is more athletic btw), but clearly your list would be madness.

[Jordan23Forever]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVNB9f8mK0I#t=2m44s

^ A two legged LeBron dunk that wasn't an and1 or with contact.. This dunk was pretty nasty, got up pretty high & extended.

It doesn't even compare to MJ's two-foot stuff, for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYYoMXDg0cg#t=1m25s

The dunk you posted looks good because he has good extension and he throws it down with force, but he really didn't get up high at all. Again, looks like 8-12" from the rim if you pause it at the apex of his jump.

[D.Brasco]

You have to give credit where credits due. MJ is a better 2 foot leaper it was his bread and butter to an extent not really for lebron. LeBron is still however the most physically gifted perimeter player in history imo.

I would say dominque is a better 2 footed leaper than MJ though.

[Jordan23Forever]

I would say dominque is a better 2 footed leaper than MJ though.

Yup. Off a gather step at least. Nique couldn't leap off a hop step or do a quick jump nearly as well as MJ despite those cases also coming off two feet. And, of course, he wasn't as good a one-foot leaper either.

Interestingly, I think the different types of muscles involved in different types of jumps factor in here. Jordan had insane fast twitch muscles, which is what gave him his tremendous acceleration/first step. My contention is that it's those same muscles which are employed when you leap, say, off a hop step, because you're only in contact with the ground for a brief moment and then you quickly explode into the air. It's a quick-firing, rapid explosion upwards. Compare this to a two-foot father step where you actually wind up and bend your knees much more significantly than on a hop step; so in the gather step scenario, you're incorporating more of your actual quad muscles to provide the force. That's my theory anyway.

[etopn23]

As a pure athlete Lebron is definitely better....

Is this even debatable?

[D.Brasco]

Sorry to bump this thread but i think this vid needs to be seen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nb7qea2hRo

Watch the re-play it really captures the hang time. I would have to say Mj had to have some of the best body control of any NBA player. I think its something that even goes beyond pure vert.

[kooldude]

You're comparing a guy that's at least 260lbs to a guy that's 210lbs in those vids. 3-4 inches aside, that's a huge gap in weight. It's quite obvious that the lighter guy would get off the ground faster given relatively similar athleticism which they both have.