LeBron's son: You couldn't beat Michael Jordan

[SugarHill]

Or he's seen MJ on youtube and likes his game better.. MJ does have way more moves.. That's something his son (who plays ball and is a top 6th grader) would instantly notice.

[3ball]

Here's why MJ is a better passer

1. Stats


Considering Lebron's bread and butter is a predictable drive-and-kick, it's not surprising that his basic repertoire and style achieves lower assist averages in the playoffs (when the competition moves up to the higher level).


PLAYOFF AVERAGES THRU 30 YRS OLD:

Jordan: 35 PPG / 7 APG / 50% FG
Lebron: 28 PPG / 6 APG / 48% FG


FINALS AVERAGES THRU 30 YRS OLD:

Jordan: 36 PPG / 8 APG / 50% FG
Lebron: 24 PPG / 6 APG / 46% FG

Source: basketball-reference.com



2. Role on Team




As the aforementioned stats show, Jordan carried 25% more scoring burden in the playoffs and 50% more in the Finals - it's a testament to his superior skill that he still averages more assists and less turnovers than Lebron.. That should end the argument right there.. But there's more.

The NBA's player-tracking data shows Lebron and Harden are the only wings in the league that dominate the ball more than point guards, even the ones on their own team.. This season, Lebron happens to be splitting PG duties with Kyrie - but normally, Lebron is always his team's point guard, like when he played with Chalmers and Mo Williams.. Even though Lebron has played point guard his entire career, he's never averaged anywhere near the 11 assists, or the all-round numbers MJ averaged the one time he got to play point guard.

Jordan's stats at point guard over the 24 games (31/9/11/51) were so ridiculous and so much better than Lebron has ever done, that they can't be explained away by statistical variance - those stats simply prove Jordan was the better passing point guard.. And we already know he was the better off-ball passer, which are passes made without using a point-guard-style, live dribble (shown in GIF above).

Of course, most people have a shallow view of the game, and in their mind, they only think of good passing coming from someone with a live-dribble, like a point guard.. This is the main reason Lebron's passing gets overrated.. But this is simple delusions - his assist averages are FAR from elite for a ball-dominator - elite would be guys like Magic, Nash, CP3, Isiah, Stockton, etc., who literally average twice the assists of Lebron.



3. Spacing Era

Passing is easier in this era because spacing creates wider lanes for easier passing.. Additionally, the NBA changed the rules with the specific intent of making passing easier - the NBA officially stated they opened up the lane with defensive 3 seconds and made drive-and-kicks more frequent with the penetration-easing hand-check ban.

A cursory glance at old footage shows that previous eras had far smaller passing and driving lanes lanes.. It's easy to see how much closer proximity defenders used to be - the lack of spacing in previous eras forced players to thread needles much more than today's game.. Less spacing makes for tougher passing.. That's common knowledge.
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[jstern]

Lebron understands Jordan impact from what I can tell. I think Lebron is more of basketball fan, player fan than anyone in the world, and is honest about players like Jordan and just how good they were.

Also, his son is probably being realistic, because perhaps because Lebron is very honest about the game with him, so his son is not a delusional fan boy. He probably understands that Lebron is likely not going to catch Jordan in things like scoring, etc.

Also mix in that they probably jab each other like my fathers and sons.

Of course I don't really know since I don't know them.

[JebronLames]

Kid needs a beating.