The Goat of basketball has been debated for years and the two main candidates have been LeBron James and Michael Jordan. The King AKA LeBron James arguably the greatest player to ever touch a basketball, LeBron James is 38 years old and entering his 21st season in the NBA and will still be playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Many of the public take Jordan’s side in this debate because they hate to see LeBron succeed. According to bleacherreport.com, LeBron James is the 3rd most hated player in the history of the NBA. Jordan is not even on the list. LeBron has been hated his whole career for doing things that every NBA player does. He has done so many things off the court including; starting a school, donating millions of dollars to charities, and many more. Jordan has also done a lot for his community, but people don’t hate him like they do LeBron.

Now looking at it from a statistical approach it adds a different view of this debate. Throughout LeBron’s career, he has played 1,421 games and averaged 27.2 PPG, 7.5 RPG, and 7.3 APG, he had a 50.5% FG and a 34.5% from 3pt, and his effective FG% was 54.5%. On the Contrary Jordan throughout his career played 1072 games and averaged 30.1 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 5.3 APG, had a 49.7% FG and a 32.7% from 3pt, and his effective FG% was 50.9%. Just statistically LeBron has better stats and LeBron is over Jordan in the Following stats all time; Total Points, Assists, Offensive and Defensive rebounds, 3 pointers made. Michael Jordan leads LeBron all-time in; steals, and fewer turnovers.

Now one of the biggest points brought up is that Jordan has 6 championships and is 6-0 in the Finals whereas LeBron only has 4 and is 4-6. One of the things that people forget when this is brought up is the fact that LeBron has only lost once in the first round his whole career whereas Jordan lost in the first round from the ‘85-87 season losing 3 straight years in the first round, two of those years he was swept and Jordan would go on to miss the finals the next 3 years as well losing in the second round once and the ECF twice. LeBron in the playoffs went on a stretch of making the Finals 9 out of 10 years from 2011-2020, He has only lost in the 1st round once and that was in 2021 when he had an injury in the regular season that cost the Lakers to fall from the 1st seed in the west to the 7th and losing to the eventual Western Conference champions.

One of the biggest misconceptions in this debate is that LeBron’s 4-6 record in the Finals is much worse than Jordan’s 6-0 in the Finals. It raises the question of however if you would rather lose in the first round than lose in the finals. When I asked people this question with the parameters of the Goat debate the people on Jordan’s side would always say they would rather lose in the First Round, but then when asked with the parameters of the team they play on the answer was always made the finals rather than lose in the First Round. When you take a step back and look at it from a bigger perspective it is hard to deny that LeBron James really is the G.O.A.T of the basketball and 1 more championship will cement his legacy for good and end the debate. 

I would like to know your input on the debate, so please vote and give your opinion: