DESCRIPTION:
Bob Ryan breaks down the differences between two of the greatest basketball players of all time: Michael Jordan & Lebron James.

This clip aired on the final episode of ESPN's The Sports Reporters, a show that ran weekly for 28 years, offering an educated look at the world of sports. It will be missed.

BTW, I take Michael Jordan. Period!

Here's a take from NBC on who's the greatest...

Yes, you bet we’re going to wade into the Twitter-infested waters of Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James for the official title of best basketball player of all-time. Absolutely. Sharpen your social media knives. Prepare your snark weapons. But first, we must set some ground rules.

Ground rule No. 1: All of the people who think any of the following players are getting short shrift in this argument …

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Larry Bird

Kobe Bryant

Wilt Chamberlain

Tim Duncan

Magic Johnson

Shaquille O’Neal

Hakeem Olajuwon

Oscar Robertson

Bill Russell

Jerry West

… your protest has been noted and your strenuous objections have been overruled.

Ground rule No. 2: We must acknowledge from the start that there is no easy statistical answer to the question of MJ vs. LeBron. People like to wield stats like swords, but when it comes to Jordan-James statistics, they duel back and forth, like Inigo and the Man in Black. Jordan scores more. James rebounds and passes better. They shoot about the same, block shots about the same and are both marvelous defenders. Jordan played about 100 more regular season games than James so far and the advanced numbers look like so:

Win Shares:

Jordan: 214

James: 192.5

Value Over Replacement Player:

James: 108.6

Jordan: 104.4

Player Efficiency Rating

Jordan: 27.9 (first all time)

James: 27.7 (second all-time)

Let’s just say it again: There’s nothing to separate them in the statistics. It is like trying to make the statistical argument on why blue is a better color than red.

Ground rule No. 3: Their postseason accomplishments are equally mesmerizing.

Michael Jordan led his Bulls to six NBA Finals, and of course they won all six.

LeBron James, so far, has led Cleveland and Miami to seven NBA Finals — including the last six in a row. His teams have won three of them.

Now, people will try to use this stuff to support one or the other, and it’s silly. The Jordan people will often use postseason success as the tiebreaker because Jordan’s Bulls won every time they reached the Finals, while James’ teams have not even won half of their Finals appearances. It’s a dishonest argument. Jordan had one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, Scottie Pippen, on all six teams. He also had Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman on two of them and likely Hall of Famer Toni Kukoc on three of them. He was coached by Phil Jackson for all six. Nobody can legitimately claim that James had anything close to that cast.

Put it this way: When Jordan left to play baseball, the Bulls won 55 games and reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinal against the Knicks.

When LeBron James left the Cavaliers, they went 19-63.

When James left Miami, the Heat went 37-45.

Conversely, though, LeBron people would like to make the counter-argument that Jordan could NEVER have taken those Cleveland and Miami teams to seven Finals, and that’s a dishonest argument, too. We have no idea what Michael Jordan would have done with those teams. The man had an icy will. He came into basketball at a time of dynasties, and he broke through and built his own. Don’t underestimate that man.

Read more here: http://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/michael-jordan-vs-lebron-james/