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What does LeBron need to do to surpass Jordan?

(Pre-post apologies: I haven't read all 14 pages of this thread, so I'm probably about to repeat a bunch of points made by others. Sorry.)

Here's how James becomes the consensus GOAT on paper: While in his prime and on his best team, he plays Jordan in his prime and on his best team over the course of three seasons in a very competitive league. During that time and under those conditions, James soundly beats Jordan in more than half of their encounters, and wins league MVP, the league championship, and Finals MVP each season. This will never happen, of course, so Jordan will continue to be regarded as the greatest, and conversations like this will continue ad infinitum.

And yet...

This honestly isn't even a question about individual statistical achievement in the game. Yes, James is superior physically, and as mentioned in some of the recent comments in this thread before mine, will almost surely surpass Jordan in nearly every statistical category during the course of his career. But Jordan had a quality about him-- call it leadership or whatever you want-- that made him more accessible and relatable to fans on all levels. It made him more marketable, it made him more forgivable, it made him more likeable, it made him more of a winner, it made him more... it just made him MORE. It drew people in droves to the game of basketball in a way that Lebron does not replicate. I'm not so sure Lebron has poorer judgement, or is more arrogant, or is more self-agrandizing than Jordan was, but Jordan had an uncanny way of promoting himself that led most everyone to see him as classy and confident and worthy. Personally, when I think of Michael Jordan's story, I think of his growing up poor, of his trademark tongue-out-of-mouth-most-of-the-time, of his unlikely journey from high school benchwarmer to college star to greatest-ever, of his father's murder, etc. The bullet points of Lebron's story in my little brain, on the other hand, include him being annointed "The Chosen One" before ever entering the league, that his mom got a speculative loan based on his assumed rookie contract to buy him a Hummer for his 18th birthday, "The Decision", etc. Is that fair, and does it quantify why Jordan is the greatest and James is not? Probably not, but I can't help but wonder if other fans have comparable memories/mental pictures of the two. Michael Jordan also had the benefit of being the right guy in the right place at the right time-- there was so little resistance to his ascension because he was simply incomparable, while James (and any other player marked from their youth as a possible great) will always fight against the constant question of whether or not he is "the next Jordan". So in a way, it doesn't matter how Jordan's statistics measure against the latest-greatest-- whether that's Kobe Bryant or Lebron James or Andrew Wiggins or whoever comes after that-- because the numbers are completely in the shadow of a much larger legacy: The revolutionizing of the entire sport. Until someone changes the game the way Michael Jordan did, there will not be a new GOAT, and I don't think it's too big of a thing to say that that's not bound to happen anytime soon.
 
carolinajazz said:
...hey "hack a shaq!" If Wilt played against guys/teams that sucked....how come he only won 2 Championships and that......about 10 years apart? Wilt in his prime today would absolutely obliterate the opposition....have them fouled out by the end of the lst half and probably have won 5 consecutive championships!
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So your argument is...how come he only won two championships??

Ill tell you why? He was a really selfish player whos only goal was to accumulate stats.

Its pretty pathetic that for all the hype that he recieves, he only won two championships in a league that had very few good players.

Why couldn't he win more if he was so good?
 
One Brow said:
Russell was also really good, and had better teammates during most of Chaimberlain's career.
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Listen OB everyone knows that Russell was REALLY only 5'10" and played against what would today be Jr. Jr. Jazz without the diapers. No one in the 50's-90's even knew what a basketball was let alone how to "throw" one through a weird metal hoop thing. All they could do was stand around aimlessly bouncing the ball and throwing it at random things in the air until it somehow went through the hoop. Hell most of them dribbled with both hands all the time! In today's D League Russell would leave every game crying and would soon be relegated to coaching 3rd grade girl's basketball, in which his team would set records for winless streaks.
 
This argument about how good Wilt and Russell were is stupid.

How many teams were there in the league when they played? 8? 9?


I know, lets just throw all logic out the window and pretend that humanity doesn't advance and there were incredible supermen living in the 60's.


I dont get it. Supposedly the league was stacked back then, but somehow only one team could win, even with the incredible super human Wilt playing. Somehow with only 8 teams in the league, Wilt still couldn't find good enough help to beat a team with some guy called Bob Cousy running the show.
 
One Brow said:
Russell was also really good, and had better teammates during most of Chaimberlain's career.
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...thank you, Brow! You took the words right out of my mouth! A good thing....because I was just about to refer to "hack" as numbnuts! Just like Stockton and Malone, who would have won a couple of championships if not for the Jordan era.....so with Wilt! He just happen to be playing when Russell and the Celtics had "stacked a deck"....that couldn't be beat!
 
Hack said:
Somehow with only 8 teams in the league, Wilt still couldn't find good enough help to beat a team with some guy called Bob Cousy running the show.
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...Cousy was pretty much gone when Russell got there. Russell won most of those championships after Cousy retired! But Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, Havilichek and Don Nelson and another HOF forward (use to coach the Hornets) were on those teams! Infact, just about every starter and then some on those Celtic teams ended up in the HOF.....unlike 1 or 2 that will possibly make it on Lebrons team! (Wade is probably....Bosh? Doubtful!)
 
carolinajazz said:
...Cousy was pretty much gone when Russell got there. Russell won most of those championships after Cousy retired! But Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, Havilichek and Don Nelson and another HOF forward (use to coach the Hornets) were on those teams! Infact, just about every starter and then some on those Celtic teams ended up in the HOF.....unlike 1 or 2 that will possibly make it on Lebrons team! (Wade is probably....Bosh? Doubtful!)
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Of course they are all in the HOF. There was no one else to induct.

You ever hear of the word competition?

Might as well induct me into the HOF. I can ball out against a bunch of scrubs too.
 
carolinajazz said:
...thank you, Brow! You took the words right out of my mouth! A good thing....because I was just about to refer to "hack" as numbnuts! Just like Stockton and Malone, who would have won a couple of championships if not for the Jordan era.....so with Wilt! He just happen to be playing when Russell and the Celtics had "stacked a deck"....that couldn't be beat!
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pretty easy to stack the deck when there are only a handful of players that can play and they are only on one team.

Celtics basically played nobody
 
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