Former Lakers Player Compares LeBron James Finals Opponents To Michael Jordan

LeBron James and Michael Jordan are forever linked with each other in the G.O.A.T. debate. While LeBron is playing in his 10th Finals, everyone is talking about whether he is any closer to Michael Jordan on the all-time list. Many have already argued that he is, and this inevitable fourth championship win affirms it.

However, Jordan still has his share of supporters. But former NBA player “Swaggy P” Nick Young has weighed in on the matter. He went on Twitter to compare LeBron’s achievements and losses to Jordan’s by bringing up the difference in opposition. Young argues that LeBron faced tougher opponents, as Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Tim Duncan are top-5 all-time in their positions.

While one can understand where Young is coming from, he isn’t really correct. Jordan went up against the likes of John Stockton, Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson, and many other legendary players. While he always did have the best team in the league, the scalps Jordan has collected are no less than LeBron’s.

LeBron James or Michael Jordan: Who has faced tougher opponents?

Both players have conquered some of the best to ever do it. Outside Dirk Nowitzki, LeBron can claim a major Finals win over every other opponent he has had. Kevin Durant lost in 2012, Steph and Klay in 2016, Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard in 2013, so on and so forth. However, Jordan gave no other team an opportunity to beat him even once in the Finals.

In terms of opponents, Jordan has a long hit list of his own. He has some impressive names like Isiah Thomas and Larry Bird to his name as well, but they weren’t Finals opponents. Finals opponents were the ones mentioned earlier, and they aren’t any scrubs. Barkley and Malone are also in the top-5 PF conversation, alongside Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. MJ beat the first two, LeBron beat the other two.

They have both faced hard opponents, so that shouldn’t be any basis to judge their success. While Swaggy P isn’t wrong to say that LeBron’s roads were sometimes harder, you can’t discredit the big wins that MJ has himself. The GOAT debate seems like it is heading towards a stalemate.