He did this as a 38 year old, so yeah, probably.

They are equivalent talent if you compare them in an absolute sense but then this debate is not close - Lebron is a much better player than MJ. If you adjust for the era, MJ's supporting cast is miles ahead of Lebron's. Pippen isn't just a perfect No.2 - he was a perfect No.2 in a league that didn't have many of them - an oversized wing that can defend, play-make and shoot. Dennis Rodman was also an underrated special talent:

https://skepticalsports.com/the-case...-rodman-guide/

Also, Lebron doesn't get enough credit for carrying his injured supporting cast through these postseason runs - Jordan's supporting cast was pretty much always healthy during their postseason runs. If Love/Kyrie/Wade/Bosh had the same level of durability, Lebron may very well have two more championships already.

Uh, I'm here for the slap pie?

BTW here are some facts of what actually happened.

'91-'92 Bulls DRTG: 104.5
'92-'93 Bulls DRTG: 106.1
'93-'94 Bulls DRTG: 102.7

You can say what you want about how good the '93-'94 Bulls were, but they were undoubtedly the best defense Chicago had since Jordan was drafted. Except Jordan didn't play a game. And Scottie Pippen was carrying a bigger load on offense. Are we gonna say that's Tonu Kukoc and Steve Kerr as well? Meanwhile..

'12-'13 Heat DRTG: 103.7
'13-'14 Heat DRTG: 105.8
'14'-'15 Heat DRTG: 106.7

Keep in mind that despite losing LeBron (and Battier/Allen), the Heat replaced him with 29 year old Luol Deng- a guy who has seen as an elite wing defender- and 74 games of Dragic/Whiteside, one considered one of the top guard defenders in the league the other one of the elite rim protectors. And yet they still got worse.

These things aren't perfect, but the Bulls getting better defensively while the Heat got worse (despite acquisitions that should have helped) and the fact that LeBron is clearly more physically suited to being a better defender is a lot more meaningful than stocks and what some old media guys thought. Oh yea and scoring titles.

The point is to show how much more goes in to being a defender. The constant switching and rotating. The fact that most teams have multiple guys who are constant threats to shoot the 3 (as opposed to the late 80s where you maybe had 1, and the 90s where you were lucky to have 2). It's night and day. And LeBron is so good at always making the right decision that he he was better than the machine designated to tracking these movements and creating optimal ones.

Gotta love 2+2. ITT:

Mom having sex = dad being murdered

a) that's exactly what i said
b) that post was 100% serious

Parker/Ginobilli/Duncan were 30/35/36 and 31/36/37 respectively. Stockton/Malone were 33/34 and 34/35 when they played Jordan. And on top of the core that had so much playoff success, they had Kawhi Leonard both years Lebron battled them.

I mean maybe winning championships is not about about individual greatness but in that case there's not much of an argument for MJ. But if it is, we have to distinguish between playing against the Parker/Ginobilli/Duncan/Popovich core that had so much success together and playing against Stockton/Malone/Sloan core that had won absolutely nothing.

You painting the Lebron side as Uncle Ricos and Trump supporters is hilarious

You are 100% right that the spreading the floor is a huge thing now. It definitely makes guarding ball dominate guys a lot harder. I mean look at the lol numbers Harden and Westbrook had this year.

James typically isn't guarding these type of players a lot though.

The 3 point craze currently going on does make life a lot easier on LeBron offensively. It's basically impossible to double him with the shooters they have. And LeBron is an excellent passer (much better than MJ).

34-36 year old Rodman = Crazy great pickup. Savy GM move

33/34 Ben Wallace & 37 year old Shaq = OLLLLLLDDDDDD

Why quote the post if you weren't comparing the two?

I never said that Stockton/Malone weren't old. But Malone was MVPing. Stockton was still leading the lead in assists and hyper efficient offensively. Duncan at that stage was still good defensively, but not great offensively. Still a good player.

Yes, they had a 21 year old Leonard. A really good player, but not the current guy we know now.

I'm not saying the Spurs were bad. They were really really good. You don't come out of the West in those years unless you could play.

But saying they are automatically better than Utah. I'm not that sure. I think both teams are about equal.

There number of the years surrounding that period back it up (minus 1 championship).

I'm pretty sure you can be results oriented with both.

Rodman led the league in OREB%, REB% with extreme low usage in his years with the Bulls.

Shaq wasn't bad with Cleveland, he just wasn't the right answer. Shaq didn't age well as other all time greats basically because he couldn't put in a ton of minutes his last few years. Ben Wallace was basically a shell of himself in the post Piston years.

Rodman was a great rebounder and something the Bulls needed with high usage Jordan and elite 3+D Pippen. Ben Wallace and Shaq likely filled up the lane for Lebron; as you can see now he prefers bigs who can shoot; I will say Thompson is a great role player for the Cavs and he does clog up the lane a little bit but his usage, like Rodman is insanely low.

Rodman, the year before he came to the Bulls some how made third team all-nba and the the first year he was all D (a little surprised he didn't make more all D teams on the Bulls).

http://www.espn.com/nba/insider/stor...i-kevin-durant

Short List:

1. Davis
2. Lebron
3. Dirk
4. Durant
5. Butler
6. Harden
7. CJ
8. IT
9. CP3
10. Horford

He was pretty lucky to make the All D team the first year with the Bulls (only played 64 games), second year he only played 55 games (probably what excluded him).

Nah those All D teams are perfect indicators of value. Dunno if you heard but Jordan made NINE of them.

In all seriousness this is the perfect example of why the whole conversation is a joke. LeBron scores 20 points in a 4th quarter in a finals elimination game. Not good enough Allen hit the shot. LeBron plays an out of this world 3 games to come back from 3-1 down against a 73 win team. Not good enough Kyrie hit the shot. LeBron struggles thru 3 quarters but scores 19 points in the 4th to clinch a victory, not good enough bc...Kyrie scored a bunch of points in the 3rd?

There's no consistency, no objectivity, intellectual honesty, or even attempt at having an open minded discussion. It's just circular bull**** filled with people loopholing and goalpost shifting their way through debates. No player in sports history has ever been treated or evaluated this way.

You're not wrong in a lot of ways. I said it before that the arguments against these guys are terrible. But it's not surprising as these two are number one and two all time.

But it's works both ways. LeBron's guys trying to shoot stuff MJ did down are just as bad. I hope you can see that as well.

Like my argument that MJ is a better defender. LeBron is really ****ing good defender.

It's splitting hairs, because they are both so good.

no, not a crazy great pickup, but the PERFECT #3 guy, even though he was a nutjob who couldn't even really be counted on to make an open layup

an era where 3pt shooting didn't spread the floor, why not play 4v5 on offense too?
(actually 3v5 when one of the other guys is Longley/Perdue/Wennington/etc ... really just 2v5 tbh)
#perfect

The last line is verbatim what Trump said about bring treated unfairly.

Irving is not a top 15 player. A guy like Mike Conley would be much better on the Cavs. I doubt many people have him in the top 15.

But how was in the playoffs? Malone's playoff TS% was .501 and .534 in those two years, which is terrible for a scoring big who doesn't create much for others. And these are the two most successful seasons he's ever had in the playoffs. Blake Griffin's career playoff TS% is .543 and he has a higher AST% as well.

And since we're talking about players - Karl Malone (and Gary Payton) couldn't even win on a loaded Lakers team with prime Shaq/Kobe. To compare this to beating Parker/Ginobilli/Duncan is just absurd.

Just like CP3/Nash right? I mean, if we're going to ignore history like you're doing with Duncan, was Stockton at this point any better than Kyle Lowry the last couple of years?

You have to put the most charitable spin and hand-wave away championships just to make things kind of equal.

There's nothing wrong with being treated or evaluated to different standards than anyone else in history.

This is what it takes to overcome Jordan.

Defeating a 73 win team.
Beating dynasties in their prime in the finals.
Leading all players in every major category in a playoffs series against that 73 win team.
Passing Jordan in all time playoff points and soon regular season points.
Go to potentially 10 straight NBA finals, while doing so with 2 different teams.
And if he does it this year, beat 2 mvps and 4 all-stars under 28 in their prime.

Oh by the way, LeBron is 2 inches taller, 40 pounds bigger and stronger, more athletic and can defend any position.

Every year goes by, more and more basketball fans will convert over to LeBron GOAT. Its just inevitable.

Lol no. No one on the LaBron side are as bad as Gerb iLL