jordan or james?

Scottie Pippen recently said that he thinks Michael Jordan was the greatest scorer of all time, but Lebron James is the best Player the game has ever seen. First, this made me angry. Michael Jordan is that player that everyone from Harold Miner to Kobe Bryant gets compared to, but never seem to surpass. Then I set my anger aside and thought about the statement. I tend to think that it's unfair to compare players from the 80's and 90's to the players from today.

The NBA of yesteryear was tough and gritty. If you drove the ball down the lane, there was a good chance you were going to get laid out on the hardwood. Big bodies like Charles Oakley or Dale Davis would put a hard knock on a smaller player and just get a personal foul. That NBA also had some of the best players to ever put on a professional jersey. David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird. The list goes on. This also means that the competition was a lot tougher and team play was necessary to win.

Today's NBA is pretty much a glorified wuss league. Lebron could drive down the lane and a defender could breathe on him and get whistled for a foul. there's no toughness to it. Now I'm not going to say that there aren't good players out there today, but If I would try to compare, I just can't. I find the competition of todays NBA to be kind of soft. I also believe that an ego is somewhat of a necessity to be successful in today's game. So many players think they are owed this or that. You would never see that in what I like to call the golden years of the NBA.

So, If I'm forced to pick between Jordan or James, the answer is simple. Jordan. He is a 9 time all defensive first teamer, a 6 time champion, 5 time mvp, and 14 time all star. When I look at James i see hype. Jordan never had to team up with a proven closer in Dwayne Wade or Chris Bosh to win a title. Jordan Made all the other players better. He made people believe Scottie Pippen was actually a top 50 player, (in my opinion he's maybe a top 200). Jordan made guys like Horace Grant and Steve Kerr relevant. James seems to make teams worse. He's arrogant, selfish, and childish. The king has yet to reach his goal of a championship, and unless he does some serious re-evaluating, he may never get there.