[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by staylor26

KC_Connection is clearly Nick Wright

Who is the greatest basketball player ever? That question, you can almost turn it into a tautology, who is better at basketball than anyone ever? The answer to that question is LeBron James, and I'll go over why in a moment.

That is a separate question to who is the most accomplished player ever. The most accomplished champion ever is Bill Russell. The most accomplished individual player ever is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. So it is not an accomplishments discussion. Jordan wins that argument. Now, as Cris would say, Jordan's cement is dry.

- It is.

- LeBron's is not. So we'll see if LeBron can catch him in MVPs. Lebron's at four, Jordan's at five. In rings, LeBron's at three, Jordan's at six. But the question is, who's better at the sport?

Who is-- aliens come down to earth, they say you got first overall pick for the fate of humanity, who's the number one pick in world history? And the answer's LeBron James. And to be totally honest, you can pick the year.

You want year three LeBron James, when he led the League in scoring. You want year 15 LeBron James, when he's averaging a career high in assists and field goal percentage. You pick the year, because not only is he the best player ever, he's had the longest prime ever.

But now that we're at game 1,072, let's just do a tale the tape. LeBron has more assists. LeBron has more rebounds. LeBron has a higher field goal percentage. LeBron has a higher 3-point percentage. LeBron has a higher box score plus minus. LeBron has a higher value over a replacement player. LeBron's been to more NBA finals. LeBron has more everything in the playoffs.

So statistically, here's what Jordan's got. He scored more. Yeah, inefficiently, compared to LeBron, because he shot more. Like, the--

- He was a scorer.

- He was-- he was a scorer. Lebron's not a natural scorer.

- No.

- And is probably going to finish with more points than anyone in the history of the sport.

- Yes.

- Like that-- so, and the last point, and the reason why I think it's important to talk about today, is because CC, you make this point to me all the time. When we're talking about greatness, longevity matters.

- Yes.

- I think the thing you are most proud of in your career is how long you extended your prime for.

- Yes.

- You were still in your prime in year 14.

- Yes.

- Year 15 probably not, and year 16 doesn't really count. Like the--

- Right.

- That's what it was. You extended it a long time. The fact that LeBron, last night, what'd he do, 38 and 9?

JENNA WOLFE: And 9.

- That-- Jordan's final game in the League, he went 15, 4 and 4, quietly into the night with a Wizards team. So, and people were like oh, well Jordan-- Jordan retired, so he was older.

Didn't nobody make him retire. Jordan went to college. Nobody made him go to college, by the way, either. Moses Malone made it clear. You can go straight out of high school.

CRIS CARTER: Yeah, Michael Jordan needed to go to college.

- Absolutely right. So they're-- we can glorify the nostalgia of Michael Jordan, the second greatest player ever. We can pretend that he didn't come back and lose to the Magic, badly. We can burn the tapes the way the NBA did. But when you're talking about who's better at basketball than anyone ever, it's the guy we watched last night in year 15.

https://www.foxsports.com/watch/firs.../1091175491831