The High Cyde wrote:At this point, it’s obvious Bron is the GOAT to me. No one is matching 6/6 that Jordan did, it’ll never happen again, and there were unique circumstances that made it happen. If 6/6 is what tickles your fancy, then congrats Bill Russell is your GOAT.
Back then, Jordan was the unquestioned best player in the world, with the best coach in the league, a front office that put winning above Jordan’s wishes so the team was always a well oiled machine, they drafted Pippen who became one of the best defenders of all time, and the league due to expansion was weak. Given Jordan’s drive and the above, they were bound to win a ton. The league that Bron has played in has significantly more talent, teams are smarter, schemes are more intricate than just the simple triangle that the Bulls would spam, amount of area to cover on defense is a lot more, players today are replacing previous all time players on the list. Jordan would find it a lot harder to win the storybook 6/6 in todays league. Now, put Bron on those Bulls team and he probably decimates the league more than Jordan did, because he is easier to mold, he’s much more adaptable, and his drive to win is just as high as Jordans. LeBron would win like 8 rings if he played in the 90s in Jordans place, cause he wouldn’t quit the sport in the middle of his prime, he’d want more and more. Bron is now the all time leading scorer and he’s still adding to it, his peak is as good as Jordan’s and his prime is now like twice as long. He could legit play all five positions if needed. We all remember him handling a legit center in Pau Gasol, who was no slouch.
It’s not a crazy position anymore, Bron has a legit case for GOAT. But it’s perfectly fine if Jordan is your number 1, or Kareem, or whoever, it’s subjective. To me it’s Bron *shrug*
All things you said just makes even stronger case for Jordan.
Jordan played less. Won more championships.
Jordan played less- won more MVPs
Jordan played less- and is still bigger global name than Lebron.
Jordan retired in middle of his prime- because he had nothing to prove. Lebron is in his +20 years and he still can't prove he is GOAT, because he isn't and because he will never catch 6 rings nor had aura & magnitude of stardom that Jordan had. He is leading scorer mostly because he is one of few players that lasted +20 points a game ,and in his favor works fact that teams play no defense in regular season and 50 different players are nowdays +20 ppg scorers.
Difference between Jordan and Lebron is fact that Jordan was the most popular athlete in the world. Lebron is not even more popular than Messi, Ronaldo, and kind a never was. There was time where Federer was more popular than Lebron, actually so popular that they couldn't put him in Olympic village because other athletes just wanted to hang up with him.
When Jordan left , before that sorry Wizards years, league felt it.
Bulls last game in 1998 , game 6, was in US alone watched by whooping 35 000 000 (NBC).- the most watched nba game ever.
Year after, in finals of 1999, most watched nba finals game had- 17 000 000.
This downfall continued for years, including Cavs- Spurs 2007 , with young Lebron, that series had horrid viewership. Lebron-played finals only exploded in terms of viewership once, in that game 7 vs Warriors, but also reached it's all time lowest number in 2020 (ablet, nothing to do with Lebron, everything to do with global panic ).
League won't feel big loss in terms of popularity Lebron leaves, his current reign is way more similar to Wizard-Jordan, saving grace and difference only being one has Anthony Davis to at least be somewhat competitive in playoffs ( until great Serbian walks in) and other had... Rip Hamilton
And last aspect is simply that "myth " of Jordan. Teams , hall of famers were broken and went ringless because of Jordan.
Hakeem, one of most talented centers in history only menaged to win championship once Jordan retired.
Patrick Ewing probably still has nightmares from Jordan ( lost 68 out of 97 times he met him ).
Best pick&roll duo ever- Malone & Stockton never menaged to break through because of Jordan.
Charles Barkley , Kevin Johnson after winning 62 games, still lost to Jordan.
Reggie Miller, Pacers , win 58 games, lose in ECF in 1998.
Who execlly Lebron "ruined"?
Durant still won 2 rings.
Curry won as many rings as Lebron, actually beat him 3 times in 4 meetings.
Kawhi established himself as finals MVP - by beating him in 2014 ( won one more ring )
Jokic won first championship by sweeping old Lebron
Dirk won his by going through Lebron
Duncan beat him 2 times in 3 meetings
Who are we left with? Myth of Derrick Rose, who's career died at age of 23. Harden? Guy lost more times to Curry than Lebron in playoffs. Westbrook? Guy never passed first round of playoffs without Durant. Fluky P and Roy Hibbert in 2012?
For record sake, i have Lebron at 2#. Lebron would never even become global megastar if there wasn't Jordan who made NBA global sport.
Olympic Games 1992 changed NBA forever. Not just for Europien & international audience, but for US audience as well, to this date, it's still one of most watched event of all time (and most watched Olympics).
Even when Space Jam dropped it was massive hit, making x3 of orginal budget ( fun fact, it made more money, without adjusting to inflation than Lebron's one ).
10 years from now, people will still play in Jordan shoes. Lebron will be one of players who's name pops when they put comparisons for draft about 6'8 people who can handle the ball. Pretty much happend to Kobe, people forgot about him in 2 yeras ( until tragedy happend).
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon