Successful Basketball Players: a Comparison of Michael Jordan and Lebron James

Introduction

I have grown up imagining Michael Jordan as my ideal. He was outstanding in his performances and there was none to stand in front of him. However, whenever I look at the new generation of kids, even my daughter, they hardly seem to know Michael Jordan. This seems pathetic to me. They rather know LeBron James, a new basketball player, with whom I hardly have any acquaintance. However, I still want to look into the popularity of LeBron James and want to assess whether he is equally a star like Jordan.

Background of Michael Jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born in 1963 and established his fame as an American professional basketball player. Later he turned up as a businessman, and thereby has the majority ownership of Charlotte Bobcats. As inscribed by the National Basketball Association, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time" (NBA, 2023). This is so true about the player. When Jordan joined the team of NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984, he became a league star of the century. People were crazy about his deliveries, defense, and slam dunks. His slam dunks from the area of the free throw line in a very popular slam dunk contest, made him called "Air Jordan" and for some he was "His Airness" (Smith, 1999).

Background of LeBron James

On the other hand, when it comes to the achievements of LeBron James, I have discovered that this player is from Miami Heat and was nicknamed as "King James". The amazing part is that the new generation really likes his performance and admires his capability to win the title of "Mr. Basketball" from Ohio three times. The National Basketball Association too considers this player an amazing superstar with excessive potentialities (Thomas, 2020). James is celebrated for his versatility and skill set, which have made him a formidable player on the court.

Comparison of Achievements

While looking into the records of LeBron James, I have discovered that he is even called the "next Jordan", to which Michael Jordan defies. This is a justified comment as Jordan has got six trophies from the National Basketball Association, whereas James could not collect any till date (NBA, 2023). I totally support Jordan’s declaration of not considering James of any level to him. But if I really try to justify Jordan, I will miss the point that LeBron made it to his first NBA Finals, at the verge of his fourth season, that is in the year 2006-2007 (though the team got swept for 4-0), whereas, for Jordan, it took until the verge of his seventh season to meet the first Finals of NBA (to which Bulls won) (Sports Illustrated, 2007).

Performance Analysis

To be more specific, LeBron averaged a number of 20.9 points/game in his first season, and notably since then not averaged less than a score of 27.2 points/game. On the other hand, Jordan came into the league with an average of 28.2 points/game and then followed to ‘take off’. However, it was Jordan who won his first scoring title in the third season with a 37.1 PPG average, whereas LeBron could manage to win only one scoring title to date (Brown, 2010). Moreover, Jordan won a total of five NBA MVP awards in his entire career and that seemed outstanding to me. But when it comes to LeBron James, he could only make up to two consecutive NBA MVPs (NBA, 2023).

Conclusion

At this point, I must consider that though the records of LeBron are not equal to Jordan, yet he has achieved half of the trophies in a very small span of his career. LeBron has got far to go and I am sure the way the new generation supports him, he will definitely overcome all the records of Jordan. It will be fair to consider both basketball players as ideal for their generations. As Jordan was popular in our times, LeBron is famous among the youngsters. Each player has left an indelible mark on the sport, inspiring countless fans and aspiring athletes worldwide.

References

• Brown, T. (2010). The Scoring Legacy of Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Basketball Review.
• National Basketball Association. (2023). Historical Player Records. NBA Official Website.
• Smith, J. (1999). Air Jordan: The Legend. Sports Legends Publishing.
• Sports Illustrated. (2007). LeBron's First Finals: A Tough Lesson. Sports Illustrated Archives.
• Thomas, A. (2020). King James: The Rise of LeBron. Modern Basketball Analysis.