Even if there was more of a precedent for Jordan to follow, he wasn't exactly a sure thing at that stage of his career.
#LEBRON JAMES VS. MICHAEL JORDAN STATS PROFESSIONAL#
Moses Malone was the only player to successfully make the jump from high school into professional basketball when Jordan was a teenager, and even he did so in the ABA rather than the NBA. Jordan technically could have tried to start his career straight out of high school, but it wouldn't have been advisable. All told, that means that James has arguably had seven extra seasons of superior physical ability to work with. Two of those Jordan seasons came when he played for the Washington Wizards, after his second NBA retirement when he was well past his physical prime. We covered one of the basic explanations for Jordan's career numbers in the first paragraph.
In short, circumstances aligned for James in a way that they didn't for Jordan. So how did that happen? Why didn't Jordan, universally considered the greatest scorer in NBA history, break Abdul-Jabbar's record? Well, there were a few factors at play.
Furthermore, he will now presumably tack-on a few more thousand points before he hangs up his Nikes for good, turning a record that most thought would probably never be broken into one that will never be broken. Yet it's James who became the top man on Tuesday. He finished his career roughly 6,000 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It's somewhat surprising, then, that Jordan didn't ever seriously challenge for the NBA's all-time scoring record. But if you need a bucket, you'd take Jordan without thinking twice. James is the better passer and rebounder of the two. At his peak, Jordan averaged over 37 points per game. Jordan averaged 30.1 points per game across 15 NBA seasons compared to "only" 27.2 for James in his 20. This was easily the least efficient season of James' career, as he had a true shooting percentage of 48.8 percent.LeBron James and Michael Jordan are the two greatest players in NBA history, but when compared strictly as scorers, Jordan is almost inarguably the superior talent. James put up some stellar numbers for a rookie, averaging 20.9 points, 5.9 assists, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.6 steals, but he also shot just 41.7 percent from the floor. Along with this, James shot 29.0 percent from beyond the arc and 75.4 percent from the free-throw line. The “well, you're older” argument for basketball stops being accurate in like ninth grade.Īnyway, both players went on to have nice rookie seasons. Both LeBron and MJ won Rookie of the Year for their respective teams. Some believe the age difference should matter when comparing rookie seasons, but that doesn't make sense because both players were playing their first real games against NBA players and had no previous experience doing so (MJ did play in the 1984 Summer Olympics). Mary High School and was drafted with the first overall pick by his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, at just 18 years old in 2003. LeBron James, however, didn't go to college. He was drafted to the Chicago Bulls with the third overall pick.
Michael Jordan came into the league as a rookie in 1984 as a 21-year-old out of North Carolina. However, what may be easier to do is ask a less serious and more fun question: Which of these two players had the better rookie season? Really, there is no way to perfectly compare these guys across generations. The comparing of these two players at their peaks will go on for years to come, and while most will take the creator of the most popular shoe brand on the planet, the conversation isn't going to end anytime soon. The one NBA player most believe is the closest to His Airness is LeBron James, once proclaimed as The Chosen One coming out of high school.īoth these players boast historic careers, with James' career obviously not over yet. Michael Jordan is widely agreed upon as the NBA's GOAT.
0 kommentar(er)
