1990 Michael Jordan vs 2009 Lebron James

[Matt15]

Who had the more impressive year? Who was the better player

[mademan]

1990 was a great year for MJ, but this is clearly Lebron, imo. Clear cut better RS, led his team to a better record and had one of the most impressive individual playoffs ive ever seen.

[JordansBulls]

If you look at raw numbers probably Lebron considering rule changes, but 1990 MJ wouldn't had lost to Dwight Howard and definitely not with HCA especially considering there backcourt of Rafer and Courtney Lee. Even Kobe in 2009 dominated Dwight in the finals.

[TheGOATRises007]

Lebron probably had the more impressive year considering the RS and his record breaking playoff run for PER.

Jordan probably had his best ever series against the Sixers that year which doesn't get mentioned much.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1990-nba-eastern-conference-semifinals-76ers-vs-bulls.html

[Jiminy Glick]

It basically comes down to which player you think is better and for me it is Jordan. Better footwork, finesse moves, where as LeBron is the better athlete in terms of speed and explosiveness. But both are amazing athletes. I don't even think LeBron is the better passer, sorry, he just runs offenses more like Jordan in the 1989 season. Jordan averaged 8.8 assists for the regular season in the 1989 season. He could have done that for many seasons if he was told to run the offense and was not in the Triangle offense.

[Hal14]

1990 was a great year for MJ, but this is clearly Lebron, imo. Clear cut better RS, led his team to a better record and had one of the most impressive individual playoffs ive ever seen.

hmm, LeBron didn't even make it to the NBA finals, he lost in just 6 games in the ECF when the Cavs were favored to win the series and the Cavs won 7 more games in the RS than the Magic, the Cavs had home court advantage and still lost....but you consider that to be one of the best individual postseasons ever? Not only did that Magic team NOT win the NBA finals, they lost in the finals in just 5 games!

Jordan lost in 7 games in the ECF to one of the greatest teams of all-time and eventual NBA champion for the 2nd straight year, the 90' Bad Boys Pistons - a team that won 4 more games in the regular season than Chicago.

[Homer38]

1990 was a great year for MJ, but this is clearly Lebron, imo. Clear cut better RS, led his team to a better record and had one of the most impressive individual playoffs ive ever seen.

hmm, LeBron didn't even make it to the NBA finals, he lost in just 6 games in the ECF when the Cavs were favored to win the series and the Cavs won 7 more games in the RS than the Magic....but you consider that to be one of the best individual postseasons ever? Not only did that Magic team NOT win the NBA finals, they lost in the finals in just 5 games!

Jordan lost in 7 games in the ECF to one of the greatest teams of all-time and eventual NBA champion for the 2nd straight year, the 90' Bad Boys Pistons.

Sure if you ignore how LeBron performed against magic and the Cavs lost because they couldn't contain Dwight Howard and the magic had make every possible clutch shot in the first 4 games and that he led the cavs at a 66 wins season with Mo Williams as second best player, for sure his season was not impressive.

[mademan]

1990 was a great year for MJ, but this is clearly Lebron, imo. Clear cut better RS, led his team to a better record and had one of the most impressive individual playoffs ive ever seen.

hmm, LeBron didn't even make it to the NBA finals, he lost in just 6 games in the ECF when the Cavs were favored to win the series and the Cavs won 7 more games in the RS than the Magic....but you consider that to be one of the best individual postseasons ever? Not only did that Magic team NOT win the NBA finals, they lost in the finals in just 5 games!

Jordan lost in 7 games in the ECF to one of the greatest teams of all-time and eventual NBA champion for the 2nd straight year, the 90' Bad Boys Pistons.

Again, individual playoffs. Cavs didnt win cause they had no big who could matchup to Dwight, Orlando shot better than their RS form while Cavs shooting fell off hard and they didnt have the collective talent to overcome that shooting disparity. Lebron still played other worldly and you'd be hard pressed to find even the most ardent MJ fan who would think Jordan had the better playoffs of the years being compared

[No-more-rings]

Of course Lebron has an argument here, but i still think people tend to overrate his playoff run due to small sample size and the sheer outlier-ness of the statistics. And honestly, Lebron wasn't at the point yet where teams couldn't figure him on offense, he was playing at a pretty similar level in 2010 until he ran into the Boston Celtics. I don't doubt they could've done the same to him in 09, or at the very least he wasn't going to put up 35/9/8 60+ ts% against them with KG.

Again one of the all time great seasons don't get me wrong, but i think there's a good argument that it was only Lebron's 3rd best season or so.

[Homer38]

LeBron had an incredible regular season in 2009 but in the playoffs he was in an zone.He was in a another level.

[bledredwine]

I just consider Jordan a much better player, especially 88-93 Jordan. 09 Lebron was struggling to duel Kobe, who was considered the best player at the time anyway. And Melo was the most clutch back then, leading clutch categories, just to refresh everyone’s memory.

90’ Jordan, no question. That’s the finest of wines.

[VanWest82]

Jordan was ready to win in 90. Unfortunately Scottie and Horace weren't. Lebron wasn't ready to win in 09. We know that because of what happened in 2010 and 2011.

[Dupp]

I just consider Jordan a much better player, especially 88-93 Jordan. 09 Lebron was struggling to duel Kobe, who was considered the best player at the time anyway. And Melo was the most clutch back then, leading clutch categories, just to refresh everyone’s memory.

90’ Jordan, no question. That’s the finest of wines.

Impressive you were able to put so many untrue statements in a short paragraph but the underlined one is particularly good. Can you provide any proof to this statement? What clutch categories was he leading?

[Homer38]

I just consider Jordan a much better player, especially 88-93 Jordan. 09 Lebron was struggling to duel Kobe, who was considered the best player at the time anyway. And Melo was the most clutch back then, leading clutch categories, just to refresh everyone’s memory.

90’ Jordan, no question. That’s the finest of wines.

LBJ had been very clutch against the magic and it was not just the game 2.

[Homer38]

Jordan was ready to win in 90. Unfortunately Scottie and Horace weren't. Lebron wasn't ready to win in 09. We know that because of what happened in 2010 and 2011.

2009 have nothing to do with 2010 and 2011...With 2009 LeBron in their team,every team become a true title contender immediately.

[mademan]

Typical. When 0 objective measures favour you, go argue some ridiculous narrative.

to be clear, to whoever said it, kobe was considered better than lebron the same way everybody was saying Jordan was a ballhog who would never win back then. Thats not the hill you wanna die on. It was very much in debate at the time whether Jordan was the best player in the league. A lot of people were saying he was a statpadder until he actually won

[bledredwine]

I just consider Jordan a much better player, especially 88-93 Jordan. 09 Lebron was struggling to duel Kobe, who was considered the best player at the time anyway. And Melo was the most clutch back then, leading clutch categories, just to refresh everyone’s memory.

90’ Jordan, no question. That’s the finest of wines.

Impressive you were able to put so many untrue statements in a short paragraph but the underlined one is particularly good. Can you provide any proof to this statement? What clutch categories was he leading?

Have a look! https://www.basketball-reference.com/pi/shareit/4vi1E
source - https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/whos-more-clutch-kobe-melo-kd-or-lebron

Have you forgotten Lebron's clutch struggles or are you just pretending? Any time you quote me, you leave a gut-reaction remark with no proof otherwise of what I've said. Back in 2009, Lebron was the butt of all clutch jokes, if you haven't remembered. His 19 out of 95 clutch shots for his career (2 minutes left, within 5 points) is the worst that I've come across so far.

Fun fact from just 2016 - Late LeBron miss in Toronto left him 5-for-47 over last 10 seasons on game-tying or go-ahead FGs in last five seconds of fourth quarter & OT. For comparison, Kobe had been 13-47, making him 3 times as clutch as the king over that decade stretch.

Not only was Melo more clutch, he was much more clutch than anyone at the time. I can't seem to find 4th quarter stats, but Melo's stats were more impressive than anyone's in that regard as well. Feel free to look them up. I assume you'll cherry-pick after noticing how effective Melo was.



^^^ and this is from 2013, cumulative. When it comes to large sample sizes that actually reflect how effective a player is in the clutch, Lebron doesn't fair to well. He's awesome at getting to the rim, but his poor midrange consistency and lack of good free throw shooting doesn't leave him with the best clutch toolset, I'm' sorry to say.

This all said, I want to reiterate that I do consider Lebron a great 4th quarter player. But I do not consider him clutch in pressure situations.

[Homer38]

I just consider Jordan a much better player, especially 88-93 Jordan. 09 Lebron was struggling to duel Kobe, who was considered the best player at the time anyway. And Melo was the most clutch back then, leading clutch categories, just to refresh everyone’s memory.

90’ Jordan, no question. That’s the finest of wines.

Impressive you were able to put so many untrue statements in a short paragraph but the underlined one is particularly good. Can you provide any proof to this statement? What clutch categories was he leading?

Fun fact from just 2016 - Late LeBron miss in Toronto left him 5-for-47 over last 10 seasons on game-tying or go-ahead FGs in last five seconds of fourth quarter & OT

Have you forgotten or are you just pretending? Any time you quote me, you leave a gut-reaction remark with no proof otherwise of what I've said.

Back in 2009, Lebron was the butt of all clutch jokes, if you haven't remembered. His 19 out of 95 clutch shots (2 minutes left, within 5 points) is one of the worst in memory.

Not only was Melo more clutch, he was much more clutch than anyone at the time. I can't seem to find 4th quarter stats, but Melo's stats were more impressive than anyone's in that regard as well. Feel free to look them up. I assume you'll cherry-pick after noticing how effective Melo was.



^^^ and this is from 2013, cumulative. When it comes to large sample sizes that actually reflect how effective a player is in the clutch, Lebron doesn't fair to well. He's awesome at getting to the rim, but his poor midrange consistency and lack of good free throw shooting doesn't leave him with the best clutch toolset, I'm' sorry to say.

I don't remember the clutch joke of LeBron in 2009...After 2011 yes,but in 2009,no way...I mean he hit a clutch and-one at the end of game 1,game winner in game 2 and 2 clutch free throw at the end of the fourth quarter in game 4 vs Orlando….He was very clutch in that serie

And do you think Kobe is bad in the clutch?

[Cavsfansince84]

Jordan was ready to win in 90. Unfortunately Scottie and Horace weren't. Lebron wasn't ready to win in 09. We know that because of what happened in 2010 and 2011.

That way of thinking doesn't always work. Magic won titles in 80 and 82 and then had some pretty bad series in 83 and 84 which led to the tragic Johnson moniker around la. Bird also won a title in 81 then his team completely fell apart in the 83 playoffs while getting swept by the Bucks. Its not always 'now they know how to win' or 'they weren't ready yet' as to why a player wins a title in a given year.

[VanWest82]

Jordan was ready to win in 90. Unfortunately Scottie and Horace weren't. Lebron wasn't ready to win in 09. We know that because of what happened in 2010 and 2011.

2009 have nothing to do with 2010 and 2011...With 2009 LeBron in their team,every team become a true title contender immediately.

Not if he's your best player. I'd believe 09 Lebron could take a lot of teams to the Finals but I'd pick against him winning the title. He hadn't all-the-way figured out yet how to beat good teams that walled off the paint and protected the rim. He figured out the Pistons but had real problems with Celts and Mavs (not to mention Bulls and Pacers).

What happened in 2010 and 2011 is important because it hints at what likely would have transpired had he made Finals vs. 2009 Lakers. Unlike Bron, Kobe was ready to win. It seems perfectly reasonable to assume Lakers size would've presented the exact same issues he faced vs. Celts and Mavs. And let's face it, Kobe was more mentally tough at that stage of their careers. Kobe had to step up and bail out Team USA the previous summer. Don't think that wouldn't have factored into things.

In 90 it was clear MJ had the answers just not the horses. Scottie and Horace came back the next year and refused to get punked, and so they won. The situations are different.