It is the last 10 seconds of Game 7 in the NBA finals. You need one bucket to win the championship. Who do you give the ball to? Air Jordan or The King? Clearly you give the ball to Michael Jordan (a.k.a Air Jordan). The topic of who is the greatest basketball player of all time, has been running through NBA fans’ minds. However it is hard to say who is better because MJ played in a different era than LeBron. LeBron also is still in the league so it is hard to compare them until he retires. Now if you want to have this conversation, Michael Jordan is hands down a better basketball player than LeBron James and his stats prove it.

Now, Michael Jordan was a phenomenal basketball player he made big plays after big plays. MJ also had impressive numbers by the end of his career too. According to Basketball Reference, Michael Jordan averaged 30.1 points per game in his entire career. Lebron James on the other hand, has averaged 27.1 points per game, in two less seasons. Clearly, Jordan was a better scorer than LeBron. Jordan also shows that he can convert when he gets to the foul line. In his career he shot 83.5% for the foul line and Lebron is currently shooting a horrendous 74.1% from the foul line. That is horrible, as a professional athlete and being considered to be the best to ever play the game, you should average at least 80% from the foul line.

Also, MJ has proven he is the best player ever because he has the rings to show it. When MJ made it to the NBA finals he played like the greatest player of all time. When he made it to the finals, he won the finals. He never lost the series in the finals going 6-0. He won six NBA championships, while LeBron only has three. LeBron in the NBA finals is 3-4, this shows LeBron doesn’t step up for his team in the big moments. Jordan also won finals MVP in all six finals appearances. MJ has proven that when it comes down to winning a championship, he is there for his team.

Furthermore, MJ is the greatest player of all time because other Hall of Famers looked up to him. Michael was not just a great player but a role model. Young athletes playing the game of basketball would look up to him and some still do. They aspired to be a great as him. Allen Iverson, one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game, called MJ his “idol”. Iverson stated, “Man, I wanted to be like Mike, I remember the first time I played against him. I walked out on the court and I looked at him. And, for the first time in my life, a human being didn’t really look real to me…And I’m looking at him…I’m looking at his shoes and I’m like, man, he’s got on the Jordans! It was my Mike. It was my idol, my hero.” Allen Iverson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016 and he said he looked up to Michael. That proves he is the greatest of all time. You don’t hear people saying they looked up to LeBron: You hear them saying Michael.

At this point, Michael Jordan is clearly better than LeBron, and they shouldn’t even be in the same conversation. Now don’t get me wrong, LeBron is a great player, he should be top 3 all time by the time he retires, but he will NEVER be better than MJ. MJ has proven to be the greatest of all time by outperforming other greats, bringing home hardware, and having young athletes aspire to be like him. Like the Gatorade commercial says, “I wanna’ be like Mike!”