Sports

Who is the NBA GOAT: LeBron or Jordan? For current players, longevity narrows the gap

Published

2 months ago

April 25, 2024

Some debates deserve their own stage.

So while our (anonymous) NBA player poll was released on Monday, with a record 142 players answering some of the most interesting questions surrounding their league, we decided to dive even deeper into the age-old GOAT discussion, because there’s a fascinating voting trend is that just needs to be investigated.

While Michael Jordan won the Greatest of All Time category for the third year in a row, his once-large lead over LeBron James has narrowed significantly with each passing poll. This time James almost took the mantle. The data speaks loud and clear…

2019 (the first time The Athletics conducted the poll): Jordan received 73 percent of the vote, James came second with 11.9 percent (a difference of 61.1 percentage points)
2023: Jordan received 58.3 percent of the votes, James came second with 33 percent (a gap of 25.3 percent)
2024: Jordan received 45.9 percent of the votes, James came second with 42.1 percent (a difference of only 3.8 percent)

But why has Jordan’s lead shrunk so much? We wanted to let the players explain it themselves.

The consistent reasoning among LeBron voters, both old and new, is that his longevity is the ultimate difference maker between the two. He turns 40 on December 30, but is still big enough to be widely regarded as one of the best players in modern football. While Jordan played an epic role in his fourteen-year career, from his 6-0 record in the NBA Finals to his five Most Valuable Player awards and his incredible two-way play, many players shared the opinion that James’ ability to play for extended periods of time to remain part of the elite. than two decades puts him over the top.

Jordan, by the way, retired twice (in 1993 and 1998) during his storied career, playing fourteen seasons over a nineteen-year span. When he was James’ age, in the last of his two forgettable seasons in Washington, he put up good numbers on a bad Wizards team that went 37-45 in both of his postseason-less campaigns. James, meanwhile, has saved some of his best work for last:

He broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record on February 7, 2023
He led the Los Angeles Lakers to the Western Final of the conference three months later
He led the Lakers to an (inaugural) In-Season Tournament title in December
He became the first player named to the 20th All-Star team in February
He was one of the three players averaged at least 25 points, eight assists and seven rebounds this season (the others were Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić)

Out of respect for the incumbent GOAT chairman, we’ll start by highlighting this nuanced opinion from a Jordan voter who believes MJ’s influence on the entire sports world – not just basketball – is a decisive X-factor.

“The greatest of all time is LeBron James, (but) the greatest of all time is Michael Jordan,” the player said. “The difference is in the statistics. When you talk about impact, Michael Jordan. Talking about stats and numbers, LeBron. Mike has the most impact, so that makes him the greatest ever in every way, because he doesn’t just impact basketball. He has an influence on people who look up to him in tennis and football. But you don’t hear that about LeBron. …Lebron changed the game, but especially the way it is played. Jordan has changed the way it is viewed. And that is a big difference.”

But as the many LeBron voters below point out, it goes much deeper than that for them. The microphone is theirs:

“I think what Jordan has done in 14 years is crazy, but you would have to add a lot of other things (so he could overtake James). I think we have MVP fatigue with ‘Bron. I think he should have seven (MVPs, instead of four). I think ‘Bron should have D-Rose (Derrick Rose) MVP (in 2010-11). I think he should have KD (Kevin Durant) MVP (in 2013-14). I think he should have James Harden’s MVP (in 2017-18). There are a lot of MVPs he should have had.”

“Who would I draft in an all-time draft? That’s the way I look at it, you know what I mean? Some people look at it like, ‘Who do I want to have the last chance?’ Blah, blah, blah, all that other stuff. But in an all-time draft, I’ll pick LeBron. Why? I get 20 years of greatness, and I get someone who plays one through five (center point guard). And let me say the person I pick No. 2 would be Shaq (O’Neal), the most dominant player of all time. So in my GOAT debate I would go 1-2 like this. And this is coming from a Kobe (Bryant) fan.

“Winning is difficult in terms of era. And of course you have Mike as the killer. But how does he adapt to the rise of the three-point shot? There are questions as we take off the Teflon MJ jacket. If you took players from today and put them back then, we would be faster, stronger and more skilled. We would kill them. It is what it is. Part of the reason Michael was Michael was that he was the first of this generation’s athletes: 6 feet tall, 40 inches vertical, which was insane in the ’80s. But we have rookies and role players doing that these days. “Bron is 6-foot-4, 260 pounds, with a 50-inch vertical. That’s probably what it will look like in 2045. And then we’ll look at it like, ‘I don’t know if I could play with those little kids.’ (Nowadays) in high school, people take off from the free throw line and dunk windmills on people. When I was in school, barely finishing a windmill was a thing. … Now, it’s like these kids are playing on kids, doing it in eighth grade. It’s part of evolution. And even in basketball, once people see that this is possible, they try to do it. When I was a kid, Kobe barely did the through-the-legs dunk. That’s what we were aiming for. Now people are looking at Zach LaVine and the free throw line 360 and other wild sh–. … It’s part of how this sh- grows.”

“(LeBron) for sure. I think he can literally do anything and win (titles) with so many different organizations (the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Lakers) and also have the most points in his career, along with figuring out how to have longevity in his career. Everyone wants to live a long life, and he has discovered that. He knew it at the highest level. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“LeBron James is without a doubt the best player to ever touch a basketball. What he brings to the court, and he has done that for a long time, that is my thing.”

“I would say LeBron. To be able to do this for 20 years is insane. I think it’s more a matter of longevity that you have to look at, and (how) he still plays at the highest level every year. With the highest expectations (placed on him) he had everything to lose in terms of competing in the competition. It would have been very easy for him to underperform and not meet those expectations. I think he has far surpassed them all somehow. … When you’re on the floor, the closer you are to the game, the more feeling (you get) for how great LeBron is, how he sees things, how he talks. His impact on the game, his seriousness on the game is palpable.”

“(LeBron), easy. He is the best at everything: his longevity, his consistency, his availability. And he won.”

“For me personally, growing up (James) has just been the highlight. As a Midwestern kid, I remember him being in Ohio at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, and hearing about him as a young child. And just seeing him step up and see him do everything he’s done since he’s been in the league is just amazing. It’s a testament to him and all the hard work. It’s not normal what he’s doing. Absolutely.”

“Long service life, consistency for more than 20 years.”