Seven years into his career and already he had many considerable feats under his belt. He owned three MVP titles, two NBA titles, was a two time NBA Finals MVP, an NBA Rookie of the Year Award, and won an NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. Sounds almost unearthly for a basketball player, doesn’t it? Well, this was how Michael Jordan lived out his career for his first seven years – and he achieved all of these triumphs playing on a subpar team which Michael created into a dynasty with his bare hands. Jordan even created a Hall of Fame player out of his teammate Scottie Pippen. By the beginning of the 1993 NBA season, Jordan had already become a legend in the NBA.
Today we have no Michael Jordan but there are many comparisons to ‘His Airness’. One of the more common comparisons to Jordan is Lebron ‘The King’ James – without a doubt one of the most talented players in the NBA today. With that being said, however, all of James’ talents are nowhere near Michael Jordan’s talents. Seven years into his career and James has accrued zero NBA titles, zero NBA Finals MVP’s, zero NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards, a NBA Rookie of the Year award, two MVP awards and James has made zero of his teammates into all-stars, let alone Hall of Famers. Sure, Lebron James’ NBA achievements are more than the average person has done in the NBA, but it becomes unfair to Jordan when they refer to James as ‘the next Michael Jordan’. The comparison would certainly have merit had James achieved at least a quarter of what Michael Jordan achieved in his first seven years as an NBA player.
The 2010 offseason was unquestionably a circus-like event for the NBA. With two of the top three players in the NBA on the free agent market, team owners were jumping through rings of fire and walking on thin rope in an attempt to attract Dwayne Wade or Lebron James to their teams. At the end of the circus-like show, Wade and James both signed to the Miami Heat, along with Chris Bosh…three of the top five players drafted in 2003. James’ move to the Heat with two other superstars further solidifies the fact that he is nowhere near Michael Jordan in comparison. Michael created his own winning team with the players that surrounded him. In contrast, Lebron James has to play alongside two other superstars to even have a chance at an NBA title. In fact, James’ nickname should be switched to ‘The Prince’ seeing as ‘His Airness’, Michael Jordan, already owns the title of King of the NBA. Even if James wins seven straight titles, his comparison to Jordan is still meritless due to the fact that he did not create his own team. Jordan made his teammates into champions whereas James’ teammates are giving him the chance to become a champion…huge difference.
