’80-’86 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs ’17-’23 Lebron James

Matt15 · Post #1 » by **Matt15** » Tue May 30, 2023 9:29 pm

Who was the better player from age 32-38?

70sFan · Post #2 » by **70sFan** » Tue May 30, 2023 9:47 pm

I think it's reasonably close:

1980 vs 2017 - basically a tie, I may prefer Kareem but LeBron didn't miss any game in the playoffs
1981 vs 2018 - LeBron due to postseason
1982 vs 2019 - Kareem due to James injury
1983 vs 2020 - probably James strongest argument in this discussion, his 2020 season is extremely strong
1984 vs 2021 - Kareem has a small advantage to me, though it's not a wide gap
1985 vs 2022 - James had arguably a better RS, but Kareem playoffs performance makes me confident
1986 vs 2023 - another very close one, but Kareem didn't miss as many games

It's basically how much you value availability (Kareem's edge) vs James having more MVP-level seasons (3 in 2017/2018/2020 vs only 2 in 1980/1981). At first thought I wanted to say James due to 2020, but I am not sure anymore.

rk2023 · Post #3 » by **rk2023** » Tue May 30, 2023 10:47 pm

70sFan wrote:I think it's reasonably close:

1980 vs 2017 - basically a tie, I may prefer Kareem but LeBron didn't miss any game in the playoffs
1981 vs 2018 - LeBron due to postseason
1982 vs 2019 - Kareem due to James injury
1983 vs 2020 - probably James strongest argument in this discussion, his 2020 season is extremely strong
1984 vs 2021 - Kareem has a small advantage to me, though it's not a wide gap
1985 vs 2022 - James had arguably a better RS, but Kareem playoffs performance makes me confident
1986 vs 2023 - another very close one, but Kareem didn't miss as many games

It's basically how much you value availability (Kareem's edge) vs James having more MVP-level seasons (3 in 2017/2018/2020 vs only 2 in 1980/1981). At first thought I wanted to say James due to 2020, but I am not sure anymore.

Would you take 2020 James over 2017?

RCM88x · Post #4 » by **RCM88x** » Tue May 30, 2023 11:18 pm

I feel like the higher peaks of Lebron (17, 18, 20) make up for the missed games for me. Though it is very close and I don't feel either way is a bad choice.

70sFan · Post #5 » by **70sFan** » Wed May 31, 2023 6:17 am

rk2023 wrote:
70sFan wrote:I think it's reasonably close:

1980 vs 2017 - basically a tie, I may prefer Kareem but LeBron didn't miss any game in the playoffs
1981 vs 2018 - LeBron due to postseason
1982 vs 2019 - Kareem due to James injury
1983 vs 2020 - probably James strongest argument in this discussion, his 2020 season is extremely strong
1984 vs 2021 - Kareem has a small advantage to me, though it's not a wide gap
1985 vs 2022 - James had arguably a better RS, but Kareem playoffs performance makes me confident
1986 vs 2023 - another very close one, but Kareem didn't miss as many games

It's basically how much you value availability (Kareem's edge) vs James having more MVP-level seasons (3 in 2017/2018/2020 vs only 2 in 1980/1981). At first thought I wanted to say James due to 2020, but I am not sure anymore.

Would you take 2020 James over 2017?

No, I have 2017 (and 2018) James ahead of 2020.