LeBron James passed MJ on total points
One of the most controversial discussions from the NBA is about who is the greatest player of all time. The majority of the fans believe that Michael Jordan is the best athlete to ever play the game and that there would never be another MJ. And this is true – Jordan was unique, he was a once-in-a-hundred-years player and he meant so much for this league. But, statistically, in almost every category there is someone who has better numbers than Jordan.
One of them is LeBron James, who at the age of 33 still dominates the NBA and breaks records. Last night, in a game against Atlanta Hawks, the Lakers’ superstar scored 26 points and passed Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list, including points in playoffs. Now, LeBron James has scored 38.292 points throughout his career, 13 more than Michael Jordan, who stands at 38.279. Some could say that the Chicago Bulls’ legend played only 13 seasons and that is true, but we can appreciate what LeBron did, and the fact that he still has some seasons left to play. Also, in 2017-2018, James became the all-time leading scorer in playoffs with 6911 points, almost 1000 more than MJ.
It is clear that the Ohio native is a special guy and the amazing fact is that he still has time to surpass Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s record of most points in a career. LeBron James has to score more than 7007 points, but if we think that he scores more than 2000 points/season we can observe that this is actually a realistic goal. This would be a huge factor in giving LeBron James the chance to be named in the same conversation as Michael Jordan, but the ultimate argument is about the championships. Jordan has 6 rings, while LeBron has only 3 rings and 6 losses in the finals. If LeBron can win at least one or two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in the next three or four years, he would still have only 5 rings, one less than Jordan. But, in LeBron James’ favor, that would be the 11th Finals and dominating the league at such a level to get to 11 Finals is clearly an impressing thing.
But until the end of LeBron’s career, we can at least wait and try to enjoy him playing, while also understanding what Michael Jordan has meant for the NBA.
David Istrate, info@brainbasketball.net
