King James Gospel
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LeBron James Is Better Than Michael Jordan

By Quenton S. Albertie

May 17, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) reacts prior to game one of the Eastern conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
May 17, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) reacts prior to game one of the Eastern conference finals of the NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jun 22, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; A fan sits atop a tree in front of the LeBron James mural during the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA championship parade in downtown Cleveland. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 22, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; A fan sits atop a tree in front of the LeBron James mural during the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA championship parade in downtown Cleveland. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

Breaking It Down

With all of the information available, it’s clear that although Jordan took over the NBA in a revolutionary way and built his own legend in that way, his 6-0 record was also due to two Hall of Famers beside him on-the-court and a Hall of Fame player on the bench.

His team quality was virtually like the San Antonio Spurs of today’s NBA but more riveting.

LeBron isn’t infallible either, though he constantly had to carry teammates that didn’t measure up at all to Jordan’s (in the Finals) except for 2011-13 Dwyane Wade, 2011 & 2013 Chris Bosh and now 2016 Kyrie Irving.

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When the team quality is more equal, LeBron’s Finals record is truly more like 3-1 with one having to understand LeBron didn’t fail as the alpha in that series, but by deferring to Dwyane Wade.

LeBron failed by trying to be a team player more than not posting up smaller players when that wasn’t yet a strength of his game.

Unfortunately, that adds to the general but inaccurate perception he shrank in the moment rather than just saw the pecking order in a different way than everybody else saw it for that series even though his best friend and 2006 Finals MVP Wade had led his team to a Finals victory over the Mavericks just a few years before with even less superstar help than LeBron and fresh-from-the-6 Bosh were giving him now (though the 2006 Heat team was much deeper and more of a fit together).

If anything, that’s why you overlook the Dallas series as a unique set of circumstances that led to a Finals loss for the Miami Heat.

You might be splitting hairs in this argument of who is best while LeBron is still active and it could go either way from here but with more hardware and him continuing to be consistent I look for people to realize LeBron James is the greatest player ever, not Michael Jordan.