The all-time sports bar debate (best ever – Jordan or LeBron) has hit new heights because of the recent documentary – the Last Dance. While I enjoy Jordan, I become confused about how people so easily give the title to Jordan. If people could throttle back their inner 12-year-old fanboy and just look at the numbers, they might be surprised what they find.
The most overlooked metric is “Support From Team.” The reason it is overlooked is that it does not exist. I made this one up myself. Here is my rationale. Jordan and Lebron can be evaluated by the state of their teams AFTER they left. By examining the change in regular-season wins after each player departed, we can understand the strength of their supporting cast and how much both MJ and LBJ potentially contributed to the overall team success.
Bulls 92-93 Season Wins – 57 (with Jordan)
Bulls 93-94 Regular Season Wins – 55 (no Jordan)
***This shows that without Jordan the Bulls were able to win 96.4% of their games.
Cleveland 2009-2010 Regular Season Wins – 61 (with LeBron)
Cleveland 2010-2011 Regular Season Wins – 19 (without LeBron)
***This shows that without LeBron the Cavs only won 31.1% of their games.
Heat 2013 – 2014 Regular Season Wins – 54 (with LeBron)
Heat 2014 – 2015 Regular Season Wins – 37 (without LeBron)
***This shows that without LeBron the Heat won 68.5% of their games.
Cleveland 2017-2018 Regular Season Wins – 50 (with LeBron)
Cleveland 2018-2019 Regular Season Wins – 19 (without LeBron)
***This shows that without LeBron the Cavs won 38% of their games.
If you average LeBron’s “support of team” score, you get 45%, versus MJs of 96%. The score shows that the pieces surrounding LeBron (other players, coaches, front office) were much weaker than those surrounding MJ, proven by the wins earned without each player the following season. Because LeBron left three times, and each of the three times the team he left saw a considerable decline in wins, it proves the viability of this metric.
So, let’s see who is the more valuable player.
Metrics Omitted - I didn’t include things like League MVP’s, Series MVP’s, Defensive Player of the Years, or All-Star appearances. I decided not to include anything that required a “vote.” The mechanism of voting in sports is influenced by a wide range of factors and doesn’t directly correlate to the skill of the player. (See Karl Malone MVP in 1997 and Derrick Rose MVP in 2011.)
In Conclusion - Why is it that we are so focused on Jordan’s undefeated finals record of 6-0 in the finals, especially in a team sport like basketball. What if I was comparing two Olympic swimmers and one had won 6 golds, but the other one had 3 golds and 5 silvers. Which is the better swimmer? I could argue both sides, but what I couldn’t do is say hands down the winner of 6 golds is a significantly better swimmer.
LeBron is more valuable than Michael. Sorry, Jordan fanboys around the world. You have been emotionally hijacked by shoes, commercials, and propaganda masked in the form of documentaries. You know how you roll your eyes when your grandparents say, “It was so much better in the 1950s.” Every time you jump on twitter and lay a sacrificial tweet at the feet of Jordan, you are being driven by the same mental error as your grandparents. You misremember the past, not based on facts but on the feelings you have about that period of time.
Feelings are EASY, but facts are HARD. Jordan lovers, be better – stick to facts, even if it means you have to abandon your presidency of the Jordan Fan Club. Think about a new mind-set on this topic as a form of practice, because ultimately the argument of Jordan vs. LeBron doesn’t matter. But what does matter is one’s ability to consume new information that causes an adjustment to your perspective. When we use feelings to validate our position, it is only a matter of time before we stop listening to facts. Once we stop listening to facts, we become entrenched in personal beliefs and lose our ability to grow and evolve. Without the ability to evolve, we become irrelevant and ultimately angry and disconnected from reality.
So, take the first step to stave off irrelevancy and accept the fact that LeBron is better than Jordan.