With the conclusion of the acclaimed The Last Dance documentary on Sunday, NBA fans longing for any sort of entertainment while quarantined have reignited the age-old debate over who is truly the greatest player of all time: Former Chicago Bull and NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, or current LA Laker superstar LeBron James. The latter has spent the last 15 years dominating the league, racking up four league MVPs and making 16 All-Star games, while winning three championships and bringing countless underwhelming teams to the Finals along the way. Jordan, however, has been the consensus G.O.A.T for years, winning five MVPs and leading the charge for a Bulls dynasty that won six titles in eight years, dominating the league and winning hearts worldwide as a result. The Akron Hammer fanbase argues that James has put up better all-around numbers and won despite underachieving supporting casts, while Air Jordan faithfuls say that LeBron’s six finals losses to Jordan’s zero cost him the debate. It’s time to settle this feud once and for all, as we rate each player from 1-10 on a variety of categories to finally find an answer to the question deemed unanswerable. Without further ado, here are the categories:

All-Around Skill

Winning

Prime Ability

Supporting Casts (on court and front office)

Global Influence

And now, for our ratings:

All-Around Skill:

Michael Jordan may very well be the greatest scorer in modern league history, holding the career record with 30.1 points per game as well as having won a record ten scoring titles, including a run of seven in a row from 1986-1993. He managed to lead the league in steals on three separate occasions, and averaged a respectable 6 rebounds and 5 assists for his career, including one season with eight in both categories. While Jordan has a clear advantage in scoring, LeBron’s all-around ability is unmatched. The King has put up 27.1 points per game on 50.4% shooting for his career to go along with an average of 7.4 per game in both rebounds and assists, numbers which only three other players have put up for a single season. He ranks in the top 8 all time in both points and assists, with no other player even ranking top 10 in both categories. While Jordan has averaged seven rebounds and seven assists per game just once, LeBron has done it nine times, on pace for a 10th before the current season was suspended.

Jordan: 8/10

James: 9/10

Advantage: James

Winning:

LeBron is the only player since the 1960s Celtics to advance to eight consecutive Finals, winning the East four times with the Miami Heat and four times with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2011-2018. He accounts for two of the six times in league history that a team has advanced to four straight NBA Finals. However, James is held back by his relative futility on the grandest stage, with an underwhelming 3-6 record in the NBA Finals as compared to Jordan’s pristine 6-0 clip. His Airness holds the NBA record with 6 Finals MVPs, double the tally of any other player in league history, and averaged nearly 65 wins in his six championship seasons, a number LeBron has only reached twice in his career. In the 1995-96 season, Jordan and the Bulls won a then-record 72 games, followed by 69 wins the following year, the most ever in a two-season span.

Jordan: 10/10

James: 8/10

Advantage: Jordan

Prime Ability:

It’s difficult to point out a specific prime year for both players, as both are known for their agelessness and ability to maintain a high level of play for years, so their primes cannot be limited to a single season. For MJ, his prime seasons will be considered from the 1986-87 season to his final season in Chicago, 1997-98 (Jordan was retired for the 1993 season and most of the 1994 season). In that 830-game span, Jordan averaged 32.0 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.5 steals, and 0.9 blocks on 50.5% from the field, 33.9% from 3, and 83.7% on free throws with an eFG% of 51.9%. Jordan picked up 5 MVPs during this time, finishing second in voting three times and third twice over the 10 full seasons he played during this time. He won all six of his championships and Finals MVPs during this time, and even won a DPOY in 1988. LeBron’s prime will be measured between the 2004-05 and 2019-20 seasons, despite statistical down years in 2014 and 2015. During this time, in which he played 1179 games, James averaged 27.5/7.6/7.5/1.6/0.8 on 51.0/34.6/73.4 shooting splits, coupled with a 54.8 eFG%. During this time, James won four MVPs, finishing second three times (and likely would have had a fourth this season) and third three times. He reached the finals nine times, including eight straight from 2011-2018, winning titles in 2012, 2013, and 2016. Unlike Jordan, LeBron does have a single season that stands out, his 2012-13 season when he averaged 26.8/8.0/7.3 on a staggering 56.5% from the field and 40.6% from three. He was a vote shy of being the unanimous league MVP and finished second in DPOY voting, while leading the Heat to a championship after which he won Finals MVP. What really made that season special was his efficiency. Scoring 26.8 points on 17.8 shots per game, he averaged 1.5 points per shot, a rate that would give him an average of 34.5 points per game if he took 22.9 shots, or Jordan’s career average. This is the closest category we have so far.

Jordan: 10/10

James: 10/10

Advantage: Push

Supporting Casts:

LeBron has had his fair share of elite teammates over the years, including Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving, all of whom won titles with him. However, Irving is the only one of those players who was in his prime when playing with LeBron, who often found himself having to carry lackluster rosters to the Finals. Jordan was gifted with at least a few high-level teammates for all his title runs, with all but one of his playoff series wins coming alongside Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen as well as All-Stars in Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant, and several others. Due to his lack of help, LeBron wins this one easily.

Jordan: 7/10

James: 9/10

Global Influence:

This is where the debate is won and lost. While James has built a brand of his own and has proven to be the face of his generation, Michael Jeffrey Jordan is the undisputed king of influence in basketball. Not only was he the first player to have a major shoe line, but his high-flying game and intense persona made him a global icon like very few athletes have in any sport. Jordan wins by a landslide.

Jordan: 10/10

James: 8/10

Overall Scores:

Jordan: 9.0/10.0

James: 8.8/10.0

By the slimmest of margins, His Airness Michael Jordan reigns supreme as the greatest of all time for the time being. King James may make it a battle if he can win another title or two, but the master holds the edge on his disciple for now.