05-24-2020, 03:26 PM
(05-24-2020, 02:20 AM)J24 Wrote: I can respect that but I just think lebron doesn't get the credit he deserves from most Jordan fans. Those Spurs teams & Warriors team that Lebron faced were much better than any team Jordan faced in the Finals.
Plus Lebron carried a bunch of know names to the finals in 2007, 2015(both Kyrie and Love were hurt), and 2018.
Jordan also had the best team during those runs especially during the second three peat. Pippen and Rodman are arguably the best defenders in the history of the sport,Steve Kerr was a great 3pt shooter,and Kukoc is arguably a top 5 international player of all time.
Jordan won 3 titles before Rodman ever showed up. The first title team's roster wasn't anything to get excited about either, and they destroyed they Lakers. Rodman was also run out of 2 solid locker rooms that couldn't manage him before landing in Chicago. He wasn't exactly a hot commodity when they picked him up, and without Jordan and Phil to manage him, he's probably not in Chicago long, either.
Jordan's performances in the finals were consistently magnificent, even when he was young and developing. His games vs an all-time great Celtics team were some of the best individual performances in league history. Plus, he was getting physically beaten up in ways that aren't exactly legal in LeBron's NBA, where big men are largely a thing of the past and susperstars are protected like NFL quarterbacks. LBJ didn't have the Knicks and Pistons throwing him to the ground whenever he left it.
Jordan has the flu game, LeBron has the cramp game. LeBron flops like no player in the history of the league to draw fouls, which probably is the thing that makes me the most critical of him. LeBron stood before the national media and told them he was the best player in the league, then turned in an awful performance immediately after. Kawhi absolutely outplayed Lebron when the Spurs beat the Heatles in 2014, and ran the superteam out the finals in 5 games. Someone might have gotten the jump on MJ for a game, but never a finals in it's entirety, and never in that thorough of a fashion. Just ask Reggie Miller and Gary Payton.
Add to that that LBJ turns the ball over at a much higher clip than MJ, sometimes in critical situations. Add to that that LBJ defers with the game on the line while MJ always takes the shot, and is more successful when he does.
Lebron is no doubt one of the greatest. He may even be the greatest from a physical standpoint. He just isn't the same on a mental level as Jordan. LeBron has been treated like King James since he was in grade school. Jordan got cut from his freshman team. Michael had something to prove even when he was the undisputed biggest celebrity on the planet. Even if he didn't, he'd make something up in his head to get going. I don't see that in LBJ. He's great and he has zero problem telling you he's great (not one, not, two, not three).
I rooted against MJ every year the Bulls were in the finals. I'm a Spurs fan and wanted someone in the West to knock him off. All I can say is that when Jordan was on the other end of the finals bracket in the East (which was also a better conference in MJ's time), it felt impossible. I don't feel that way at all with LBJ. He's proven himself beatable many times.
