Quote:
Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501
I am not saying you are selectively pulling stats out. I am talking about how you over-rely on stats that only tell a part of the story, and then treat it as gospel. MJ is the greatest player of all time for a lot of reasons statistics just can't describe.
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Stats allow us to compare the two players on equal footing and allow a story to be told about the two players without having to rely on memory or mythologizing (and without being impacted by nostalgia or their respective media images). It's a fair, objective, and unbiased way to compare.
When an argument boils down to MJ is the greatest player of all time just because he is, it doesn't work. It's not some kind of self-evident fact, it needs to be proven like anything else (or else you wind up looking like some Yankees fans who baselessly believe Jeter is the greatest SS to ever play). MJ's stats and his obviously his team's titles make that argument work, just as LeBron's (wherever he ends up with) will do the same at the end of his career.