LeBron ranked as most dominant NBA player of the millennium

LeBron James is the best NBA player of the millennium.

LeBron James is the most dominant NBA player of the millennium, according to ESPN’s The Magazine. Utilizing a five-step formula that took the data of the most dominant sports stars of the last 20 years into account, James recorded a “dominance score” of 15.6, meaning his performance was 15.6 standard deviations above the top players in the NBA for one season.

“The Dominant 20“, written by Peter Keating, lists James as the second-most dominant athlete of the last 20 years, behind golfer Tiger Woods. Woods had a dominance score of 17.0.

(Fun fact: James and Woods share the same birthday, December 30th)

For those that say Kobe Bryant was the most dominant NBA player of the millennium, the “Black Mamba” didn’t make the cut. Keating explains why, stating the following:

"Bryant led the NBA in each of two categories six times over his 20-year career: field goals attempted and field goals missed. In 2005-06, when he scored 35.4 ppg, he took 350 more shots than anyone else. Which is to say, he was nowhere near as efficient as his most elite peers. And so while Bryant ranks in the all-time top 20 in value over replacement player, he never led the league in VORP (or win shares). So … there’s that."

To Keating’s point, James has never led the league in field goals attempted or missed.

Furthermore, James has led the league in value over replacement player (VORP) eight times in his career and did so for eight straight seasons (2005-2006 to 2012-2013). He also leads the league in VORP now, in his 15th NBA season and at 33-years old with a score of 7.4. James is the league’s active and career leader in VORP with a score 123.3.

It would be interesting to see where James ranked if the article encapsulated data from the last 30 years, so that NBA icon Michael Jordan could be included in the rankings..

James has passed Jordan, a player considered to be the best of all-time by many, in multiple statistical categories and is, in fact, statistically superior to Jordan.

Using the same method of comparison that was used between James and Kobe, Jordan led the league in field goals attempted nine times in his career. He led the league in field goals missed seven times in his career.

However, Jordan led the league in field goals made ten times, while James led the league in the category five times and Kobe three times. Kobe’s career efficiency (44.7 percent shooting from the field) pales in comparison to both James’ (50.4 percent shooting from the field) and Jordan’s (49.7 percent shooting from the field).

Jordan led league in VORP seven times (from the 1986-1987 season to the 1992-1993 season) and is second all-time in VORP with a score of 104.4.

As we all know, Jordan had a reign of championship dominance (6-0 in the NBA Finals with two three-peats) that is unmatched by James (3-5 in the NBA Finals). However, Kobe had a 5-2 record in the NBA Finals and didn’t make the cut, so Jordan’s rings are unlikely to sway an analysis based purely on the player rather than team success.

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