3. Responsibilities
Hitchhiking off of the all-around brilliance James brings to the table, the difference in responsibilities between Cleveland’s No. 23 and Chicago’s No. 23 is astounding.
What Jordan did was plentiful. He was a fierce leader, a scorer and a closer.
However, he rarely guarded the best defender on the other team. He had a guy by the name of Scottie Pippen to take that responsibility.
Furthermore, Jordan never was put in position to be a rebounder or a guy who ran the offense. He had guys like Horace Grant and Dennis Rodman grabbing boards while Pippen, B.J. Armstrong and John Paxson played the role of facilitator.
James, on the other hand, literally does everything for his squad.
He’s talented and smart enough to pull off wearing these many hats, and is doing so right now during the 2015 NBA Finals out of necessity.
Ask any hardened hoops fan or player. When a scorer doesn’t have to expend his energy guarding the opponent’s best player, he enjoys a tremendous leg up on the offensive end of the floor.
Check out the turnover percentage between both of these guys for their career.
Jordan finished with a 9.3 mark. This means he turned the ball over 9.3 times per 100 possessions. LeBron currently sports a 12.5 number.
That number is incredibly close considering how much more James handles the ball than Jordan did.
Not only that, but we all know James’ 6.9 assists per game trumps Jordan’s 5.3.
