Better Athlete MJ or LeBron?

[Silver Bullet]

Uh. I try not to come on this board because you guys are all like Republicans. There is no point in trying to reason with most of you.

[NYKnick87]

James White was also a track and field athlete. The only thing Jordan has on him is body control and strength.

[dream_catcher_9]

Yeah, Jordan was slow. That's why on youtube I can find at least half a dozen plays of him dribbling 3/4 of the court in 3-3.3 seconds. Know what the best times at the NBA draft combine are for 3/4 court sprint WITHOUT dribbling each year? 3.1-3.3 seconds. And MJ did this while dribbling, routinely, even at the later stages of games. But you're right, he was SLOW.

I think his point was, he was slow compared to the elite baseball athletes, which is true mainly because he was much bigger.

[eatyourchildren]

James White was also a track and field athlete. The only thing Jordan has on him is body control and strength.

And lateral quickness and change of pace and change of direction and ability to absorb contact and finish and a whole host of other things.

[Call my name]

Athleticism is hard to measure...
I think Jordan was quicker than Lebron, but I guess Lebron has more strength.
The thing that I think separates Jordan and Lebron is 'smoothness' (if you know what I mean).
I think Jordan's shooting, dunk and especially layup are more 'smooth' than Lebron's.

[INKtastic]

vertical leap is measured jumping off of two feet.

Can you show me a Lebron dunk off two feet in the halfcourt, preferably over someone?

I'm not sure what "in the halfcourt" has to do with it, but here's a dunk off of two feet from tonight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNOT7RZ-dYc

[Jordan23Forever]

vertical leap is measured jumping off of two feet.

Can you show me a Lebron dunk off two feet in the halfcourt, preferably over someone?

I'm not sure what "in the halfcourt" has to do with it, but here's a dunk off of two feet from tonight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNOT7RZ-dYc

I asked for "in the halfcourt" because anyone can get enough momentum to get decent lift when they're in the open court. And if you'll notice, Lebron got nowhere near as high as he usually does on his one-footed leaps there. Again, a halfcourt dunk off two feet (either off a hop step or gather step), preferably over someone. Mind you, if this was VC we were discussing, I'd ask you to provide a halfcourt one-footed dunk over someone, because I don't think they exist.

[Retrolock]

^Yeah, that dunk by LBJ was not as impressive as his one-foot dunks.

[INKtastic]

it was pretty impressive live and on the angle they showed the replay from at the Q. Live it looked like Mo had thrown the pass too high.

[ImmortalD24]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVAaV7P-cws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmko73RC4u0

[Retrolock]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMndmGL_-cU

Better dunk off two feet

[Jordan23Forever]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVAaV7P-cws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmko73RC4u0

Thanks for the videos. As you can see, those two dunks are MUCH less impressive than his usual on-footed monsters. He looks like he barely gets off the ground in those, just that he powers through guys. Again, my entire point in bringing this up at all is to show that Jordan was a much more versatile leaper (and thus a better leaper overall) than Lebron (or VC for that matter), which is an athletic advantage he has over LBJ.

[INKtastic]

a sample size of 3 dunks, the first one that I showed his head was near the rim at the peak of his jump. You can't see that very well in the angle from tv. How about showing some examples of Jordan's 2 foot dunks?

[Jordan23Forever]

a sample size of 3 dunks, the first one that I showed his head was near the rim at the peak of his jump. You can't see that very well in the angle from tv. How about showing some examples of Jordan's 2 foot dunks?

His head was near the rim? Uhh, no, not nearly. His head didn't even come within 8-10" of the rim, unlike on his one-footed dunks where he's usually at or near rim level. And again, it was a breakaway dunk where he had all day to wind up.

Jordan's two-footed dunks? Sure. Here are a few significantly more impressive than the two or three shown for Lebron:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyni_UJkTuQ&feature=related#t=1m40s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te-8MJ84834

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVUXJ8Q7ehY (opening play of the video and also 1:04, 1:10, 2:02 etc.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF9iByZVeAQ#t=3m50s

[INKtastic]

well, I didn't look at them all, but didn't see anything better than what LeBron does. And certainly you can say the same thing about Jordan you're trying to say about LeBron, his one footed dunks are better.

[Jordan23Forever]

well, I didn't look at them all, but didn't see anything better than what LeBron does. And certainly you can say the same thing about Jordan you're trying to say about LeBron, his one footed dunks are better.

You didn't see anything better than what Lebron does off two feet? Wow.

Lebron is perhaps marginally better off one foot, but Jordan is leaps and bounds better off two feet, hop step etc. My point is that Jordan is a far more versatile leaper in game situations.

[eatyourchildren]

well, I didn't look at them all, but didn't see anything better than what LeBron does. And certainly you can say the same thing about Jordan you're trying to say about LeBron, his one footed dunks are better.

You didn't see anything better than what Lebron does off two feet? Wow.

Lebron is perhaps marginally better off one foot, but Jordan is leaps and bounds better off two feet, hop step etc. My point is that Jordan is a far more versatile leaper in game situations.

From what I see, Lebron is a more explosive one-foot leaper and MJ the much quicker and explosive two foot leaper.

However, I'm not even entirely sure of this assessment. I remember Bron footage from his high school days, and the hop step was his bread and butter move. He stopped using it when he got to the NBA, probably because NBA defenders and just so much quicker and smarter about defending against it (especially with the team defenses). Now, does that mean Jordan is a much better two-foot leaper? I'm not sure. It might just mean he's much more agile and nimble (which is true).

[INKtastic]

well, I didn't look at them all, but didn't see anything better than what LeBron does. And certainly you can say the same thing about Jordan you're trying to say about LeBron, his one footed dunks are better.

You didn't see anything better than what Lebron does off two feet? Wow.

Lebron is perhaps marginally better off one foot, but Jordan is leaps and bounds better off two feet, hop step etc. My point is that Jordan is a far more versatile leaper in game situations.

I didn't look at the style of Jordan's dunks, I looked specifically at how high his head was. I didn't see anything any better jumping wise than what LeBron's two foot dunk last night where his head was nearly at rim level at the peak of his jump and he had to duck to not hit his head off the backboard.

And Jordan's one foot dunks are certainly better than the two footed ones in the clips you posted.

[coolnerd88]

I didn't read 8 pages because there is no need.

Lebron is the most athletically gifted person since Wilt

Jordans better by a mile but Lebron's more athletic by a mile

[ImmortalD24]

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.