The NBA playoffs and silly arguments on the days between games go hand in hand because there is so much time to fill and, in this year in particular, no decent games to talk about.
But this argument caught my attention this week: Who would win a 1-on-1 game between each-in-their-prime Michael Jordan and Lebron James?
The cause was advanced by ESPN’s Jay Williams, who said James would win. Jalen Rose made (more of) an idiot of himself by getting out of his chair and bouncing around the studio in an effort to show that Williams had a ridiculous argument.
Predictably, Rose completely missed Williams’ point and launched into his counterpoint about how great Jordan was on offense, how great Jordan was on defense and had great Jordan was in winning six championships (and another in college, not that it had anything to do with this argument). Completely beside the point.
My only problem with Jordan has always been that people were to quick to anoint him as the greatest player of all time. Maybe he his, maybe he isn’t, but there are arguments on both sides.
Conversely, I don’t think James is nearly as accomplished as Jordan. But that’s not the point Williams is trying to make and one I agree with.
Do you realize how big James is? He’s Karl Malone size with moves like Jordan had. I don’t care about scoring titles or Defensive Player of the Year Awards — which was basically Rose’s weak argument — because the key to all of this is the premise that this was about a 1-on-1 game.
It’s much easier to see James being able to guard Jordan than the other way around. James is just too big and too strong.
People like Rose just go nuts whenever somebody tries to argue that Jordan wasn’t the absolute greatest at something (well, maybe not baseball). I’m no Lebron fan and I don’t care for these discussions about who is greater than whom.
But I do know this — there’s one player in NBA history who was as physically gifted with size, strength and athleticism as Lebron James and that was Wilt Chamberlain. There have been a lot of players through the years like Jordan (Elgin Baylor, Julius Erving, Clyde Drexler, Kobe Bryant), but he’s just better than any of them.
There’s no one like Lebron James. And in a 1-on-1 game, I’m taking him.