If Jordan was an even better player, and LeBron was a worse player, LeBron would be considered the greatest.
Imagine a 40 year old Jordan carrying the Wizards to the NBA Finals, but losing to Kobe and Shaq. What an accomplishment, right?
Wrong. That would have tarnished his legacy and reputation.
It was determined at 22 years old that LeBron would never be the greatest. As a 21/22 year old, LeBron carried the Cavs to the NBA Finals, but lost to the Spurs dynasty in its prime.
LeBron's game 5 against the Pistons in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals was perhaps the biggest stain on his legacy. LeBron scored 24 straight points and 48 total in a pivotal game of the series, and willed the Cavs to victory.
If not for such greatness, LeBron would be a greater player.
In 2011 and 2014 with the Miami Heat, LeBron's legacy was ruined by winning too much. A lottery appearance or first round exit would have preserved the perfect finals record.
If only LeBron didn't return home to a lottery Cavs team and take an injury-depleted team to game 6 of the Finals while putting up monster stats....
If only he'd lost to a lesser team or hadn't made the playoffs at all.
If LeBron was worse, he'd be viewed in a entirely different light.
If LeBron was 3 for 3 or 3-0 in the Finals he'd be viewed as a greater player.
4-1 Finals dominance over KD, Westbrook, and Harden? Amazing.
4-3 Finals win over the Spurs? After being down 3-2 and by 12 points going into the 4th quarter of game 6? A 4th quarter in which he scored 16 points? Wow.
Down 3-1 in the Finals against a 73 win team?
How about 41 points in game 5, 41 points in game 6, and a triple double and epic block in game 7 to break the Cleveland drought. Down 3-1 to what people were calling a top 2 team of all time. No team had ever come back down 3-1 in the Finals. But down 3-1 to a 73 win team with the first ever unanimous MVP? With 2 of the 3 games on the road? Against a team that was 36-0 at home going into April?
3 for 3 in the Finals. Clutch. Unparalleled. Relentless. Unstoppable. Killer instinct. Cold-blooded.
LeBron's legacy would be unlike anything we've seen.
At age 31, LeBron would retire after the greatest Finals performance of all time. After delivering on his promise to Cleveland.
A perfect 3-0 finals record
3 Finals MVPs
2 Olympic Gold Medals
1 time scoring champ
Rookie of the year
12 time NBA All Star STARTER in 13 year career
12 time All-NBA in 13 years
10 time All-NBA first team in 13 years
6 time All-NBA defensive team (5 1st teams)
1st overall NBA pick out of high school
High School National Champion
3 time state champion
2 time high school national player of the year
And dozens of team and league, scoring, assist, rebounding, and Finals records.
Unbelievable career... All by the age of 31.
Storybook and movie type stuff. The stuff of legends.
Not to mention an amazing off the court reputation.
All he does for his hometown and community.
Meanwhile, in those 9 years that Jordan came up short, what if he had gone further? What if he had been better and reached the finals?
What if Jordan had gone 6-9 in the Finals? A losing record. That aura of immortality, perfection, clutchness, and cold-bloodedness? Gone. Poof.
9 years of losing on the world's biggest stage. The missed shots, the bad games, the whining, the press conferences, the choking.... Can you imagine social media being around for those 9 years?
In those 9 years, Jordan came up short. He missed shots. He lost games. He wasn't good enough to get to the Finals. But thank goodness he wasn't better, or he'd be a bigger loser. His legacy is rewarded for not being more successful.
Imagine an Olympic sprint with 6 runners. In this kind of world, the guy who comes in 1st gets the gold, the guys in 3rd through 6th get silver, and the 2nd place runner gets publicly stoned to death.
Jordan would be way more successful than he was. But we would perceive him as not as great.
15 finals appearances? Weak Eastern conference.
6 rings? Meh. Tied for 9th all time. Nothing special.
Stacked teams, needed to be surrounded by superstars.
Had Phil Jackson.
No killer instinct. Not clutch. Mentally weak. LeBron would have never lost a Finals.
LeBron would have come back.
LeBron was 3 for 3.
LeBron did all that by 31.
LeBron was a cold blooded, clutch, killer who always performed on the big stage.
Jordan couldn't win without Pippen
Jordan was 1-9 in the playoffs before Pippen
LeBron once scored his team's last seven points in the fourth quarter, all nine of his team's points in the first overtime, and all nine of his team's points in the second overtime.
Down 3-2 to the Celtics in the series, LeBron put up 45-15-6 on 19/26 shooting in game 6 of the 2012 eastern conference finals, against a team that had 3 HOFers.
LeBron James in elimination games...
When LeBron got fouled on that dunk attempt against Draymond, he missed the first free throw. The pressure to make that second free throw to effectively win the title was enormous. Free throw shooting was LeBron's greatest weakness. He couldn't afford to miss, not with 3 point shooters like Steph and Klay on the other end. LeBron HAD to make that shot. He had to make the most pressured shot of his career. His entire legacy and reputation was on the line with that shot. If LeBron had missed two free throws there, well, just imagine what the reaction would have been. Out of the millions of shots he ever took with anything resembling a ball and a hoop, this was the one shot he absolutely could not miss. And he made it.
The Block
The 37-12-4 on 12/23 shooting and 5/10 against the Spurs in game 7, including the mid range dagger to win it.
I could go on and on and on.
With all this said, this makes LeBron look like the greatest ever.... And this is if LeBron was worse and Jordan was better.
In reality, LeBron is even better than that. And Jordan isn't as good as that.
My point is, LeBron is punished for being more successful. At the same time, Jordan is rewarded for being less successful.
People could say... Well 6 rings is more than 3. Well with that logic, there are 8 guys better than Jordan.
We say that the GOAT must be the perfect basketball player. We say that he must be a cold-blooded clutch flawless superstar champion. We say that Michael Jordan is that player. We say that the GOAT must embody certain characteristics. We say that he must be clutch, cold-blooded, have a killer instinct, and etc.
Those traits are mythical. It's all perception. And it's distorted. Losing before the Finals makes you more clutch. Somehow Jordan is more of those things because he did less, and somehow LeBron is less of those things because he did more.
That way of thinking is so flawed that it hurts my head. It's so nonsensical.
What if fall 2003-2016 occurred before 1984-spring 2003? What if all the pressure was on Jordan to live up to LeBron?
What if we forced to Jordan to live up to some impossible and nonsensical standard?
The thing with LeBron is that we wanted him to be great. But we never wanted him to be better than Jordan. No matter what LeBron does in the rest of his career, some people say that he can never pass Jordan.
Some people will make every excuse possible to knock LeBron down and prop up Jordan.
LeBron has nothing else to prove. But yet he will continue to dedicate himself to the game.
Unfortunately, LeBron will continue succeed. And he will undoubtedly be punished for it.
