Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James

It's become a valid debate.

Let's get this out of the way now- I'm a Cleveland fan, so there is a bias for the man who led Cleveland to their first NBA Title ever and their first championship in my lifetime.  But I think there's a good argument to be made here.

Right now, (IMHO), the top 8 NBA players of all time are:
Michael Jordan
Bill Russell
LeBron James
Tim Duncan
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Larry Bird
Magic Johnson
Kobe Bryant

And I've usually ranked them as #1 Jordan, and then you can make all sorts of arguments of the rest.

Bill Russell is a bit of an odd case- he played a decade before Kareem and 20+ years before anyone else.  He led a dominant Celtics team in a different era.  For now, let's just put him in the top eight and leave it there.

But now I think James is not only rising about that crowd of others, but is in a position to challenge Jordan.

Here's the best arguments I can make for both sides:

Pro-Jordan:
* 6-0 in the Finals
* If he hadn't left on his baseball sabbatical, there is no reason the Bulls couldn't have won eight in a row
* 7 MVPs
* How many times did Jordan kill off a team?  The Shot.  The Flu Game.  63 points against the Celtics.  
* The game has changed- but it's easier.  Imagine Jordan with the referee calling as many fouls as they do now?  No one would be able to stop him!

The Pro-James arguments:
* Longer career.  As of right now, Jordan has played more minutes and more playoff minutes than Jordan
* 7 straight finals
* The NBA today is higher caliber than it was in the 90s.  The players are more athletic today.  There's more teams.  Players that would thrive in the 1980s and 1990s might not make the team today.
* James played tougher opponents.  Did Jordan ever face anyone like the Duncan-led Spurs, the OKC Thunder, or the Warriors?  
* Of the top 8 players, six of them were coached by one of the Mount Rushmore of coaches (Red Auerbach/ Phil Jackson/Pat Riley/Gregg Popovich).  Bird and LeBron are the two exceptions.


Add it all up?

If you asked me, today (May 26th, 2017)... I'd still put Jordan over LeBron.

But...

Jordan never faced anything close to the 2017 Warriors.  "Let's take a 73 win team and add on one of the five best NBA players today?"  Jordan never really faced a great all time opponent.  Bird and Johnson's teams were past their peak when Jordan reached his peak.  The Kobe and Shaq Lakers came along after Jordan left.  The closest he faced a great team was the Hakeem/Barkley/Drexler Rockets- and that was after all three were past their prime.  

If James leads the Cavaliers over this Warriors team... I think that puts him over the edge.

Let the debate continue.