re: At what point will you say Lebron is better than Jordan was?

Delving a little more deeply, Jordan carved out his largest niche in the 10-14 foot area. He attempted 466 shots within this range – second here was Grant Hill with 258 attempts, the only other guy to post even half of Jordan’s number. Michael’s 480 points scored on such shots is far and away the benchmark from this distance since NBA.com began their location tracking:


But inside the arc is where the real magic happened, with Michael scorching opponents from everywhere. He hoisted 1,202 total midrange attempts on the year, per NBA.com, 310 more than the next-highest guard by volume, Mitch Richmond. He was seventh of 99 guards attempting at least 150 midrange looks at 48.9 percent, trailing specialist-types like Mugsy Bogues, Dell Curry and teammate Steve Kerr.

Yeah I missed the context, my bad.

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its one of the sorriest memes around "mj is a better shooter than lebron"

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It's not really a meme. Jordan shot 505 as a Bull. LeBron shoots 501 so far in his career. Jordan's career average is 497 due to the two years he played in Washington after a three-year retirement. They pretty much shoot the same, and Jordan shot higher in his prime, but by a narrow margin.

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If prime MJ and prime LBJ played concurrently in either era, LBJ would be the player you're more concerned about.

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Agreed totally and emphatically.

If it weren't for Pop and the Spurs sweeping the young Lebron early in his career he would have had a championship when he wasn't even close to his peak as a player. Just scratching the surface at that time.

I won't. Unless he does. But he won't.

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i've gotten in 3 separate argument with black guys at the poker table about Lebron v. Kobe all brought up shooting. i said lebron was a better 3 point shooter. they laughed i pulled up stats on my phone. they said that didn't count some people you just can't argue with

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It isn't that cut and dry. LeBron was better from 3pt range, they're very similar from 16ft to 3pt range (Kobe with the edge), and Kobe is better from 10-16 feet.

As someone else said, it goes back to shot selection. Kobe shot .388 on FGs from 10 feet or father, and 67% of his career shots came from there. LeBron shoots .364 from 10 feet or further, but only 53% of his shots come from there. Kobe is a better jump shooter, but LeBron is a smarter jump shooter when you consider his eFG% from 10ft or further is 43.1% while Kobe's is 44.1%.

Saying Kobe is a better shooter isn't really blasphemous.

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MJ does not have a strong statistical advantage shooting so to suggest he is a better shooter is factually incorrect

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MJ is clearly the better shooter from mid range. I don't know how anybody can argue that.

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it weren't for Pop and the Spurs sweeping the young Lebron early in his career he would have had a championship when he wasn't even close to his peak as a player. Just scratching the surface at that time.

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Yup. Really only Pop has stood in his way.

I truly can't understand how anyone can argue that Lebron is a better mid-range weapon that Jordan. It is not really a subjective measurement by any means. Jordan's mid-range game was absolutely ridiculous. He didn't shoot a high-amount of 3's and just destroyed you from 10-15 feet.

Lebron has nothing close to his arsenal offensively all-around. If he did, he would be the best to ever suit up.

No one is bashing Lebron by stating this either. No one. It is purely an objective measure having seen them both play through both of their entire careers.

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Jordan at 50% midrange.

Lebron is .428 3-10 ft
.363 10-16 ft
.386 16 ft +

Not even close

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Where are you getting MJ's shooting data? Basketball Reference only goes back to 2001 so MJ's only includes his Washington stint (obviously as a lesser players.

During those 2 years he shot:

.329 3-10 ft
.430 10-16 ft
.417 16 ft +


Obvious his overall average is better, but since his overall shooting percentage in Chicago was 0.505, 0.520 from 2, it's hard to believe he shot 0.500 from midrange.