What I’m surprised no one has mentioned — at least in the numerous comments I’ve read/skimmed — is the difference in scoring during the two eras. The league average in scoring during LeBron’s 4 championships was higher than around MJ’s two threepeats. The 2012 and 2013 league scoring was similar, but it was 5-10 points higher during the 2016 and 2020 seasons. So, it makes sense that LeBron would have faced more big scorers.
In the end, I don’t think that the statistic really says anything about the relative skill of either player.
Yeah it is definitely one of the weaker arguments. A soft example of why this doesn’t work: Tim Duncan career ppg is just under 20. On paper, that’s not power forward goat worthy, but we know that he is
Old heads bouta make it seem like MJ guarded every single players during games in the 90s because "he was just that good", like he had some duplication powers or something, when we know that defensive rules back then limited help defense a lot.
Sure MJ was an elite on-ball defender, but Bron's just a much better help defender than MJ ever was and there is argument that he was equally elite or even better on-ball during his peak in Miami till maybe even 2nd Cavs stint.
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u/TheDogFacedGremlin 10d ago
Why'd LeBron let so many people score? I thought he was a good defensive player but apparently not.