Michael Jordan VS LeBron James: The First 300 Career Games

-Before LeBron James ever set foot on a NBA floor he was already expected to be the next great one. In NBA terms when you think of the great one, Michael Jordan is the first name that comes to mind. James, like Jordan signed a huge deal with Nike. In fact James signed a ungodly deal of worth over 100 million before playing a single NBA game. People thought the James hype was crazy, and I must admit I was not buying it either. However, that was over three years ago. After watching James for nearly four complete season I now believe the hype. This got me wondering, how did his first three years compare statistically with Jordan's? Have you ever wondered the same thing? If you have, you came to the right place.

-First thing is first, we must set the table before they piled up the stats. LeBron is such a beast many forget that he just turned 22 years old in December. As most of you know Michael Jordan left North Carolina early to play for the Chicago Bulls at the age of 21 years old. Therefore, Jordan was a more mature and older player before he set foot on an NBA court. LeBron put his numbers and stats up with zero college experience and was 3 years younger than Jordan.

-LeBron James played 300 games in nearly four complete NBA seasons. His 300^th game came on March 14th, 2007. Therefore, we will compare that with Jordan's first 300 games. It's worth noting Jordan missed much of his second year with an injury, therefore we dip into Jordan's fifth year when searching for his first 300 games. His 300^th game was his 36^th game of the 1988-89 seasons. Keep that in mind.

L. James First 300 Games---M. Jordan's First 300 games:

Total Points: 8,008---------Total Points: 9,800
Rebounds: 1,994-------------Rebounds: 1,765
Assists: 1,927------------------Assists: 1,684
Steals: 529---------------------Steals: 832
Blocks: 220---------------------Blocks: 375
Turnovers: 995--------------Turnovers: 989

-Can you believe how dominant Michael Jordan was in the scoring department when he came into the league? Yes, LeBron is a great scorer in the NBA today, but Jordan averaged a jaw dropping 37.1 points per game his third season! LeBron averaged a not too shabby 31.4 points per games in his third year. All in all the stats show us that Jordan was a better scorer, but LeBron is better at rebounding the ball (he is 2 inches taller than Jordan), and surprisingly, at least to me, LeBron was a far better passer. Also, James isn't exactly surroned by all-stars to get all of those assists either. Imagine if he had a decent core group, he might average 10 assists per game. Jordan bested him in steals and blocks by a considerable margin which tells us Jordan was a solid and superior defensive player; and offensive player. The turnovers were pretty much a push. If you are keeping track Jordan wins three of the five categories with turnovers being a push,

-Personally, its a little surprising that LeBron was able to hang with Jordan in most categories, when you consider that James put his numbers up straight out of high school. Its equally surprising how much better Jordan was in scoring, nearly 2,000 points more scored is quite a bit.

Best overall Statistical year of Career for Michael Jordan:

1989, his fifth NBA season. He averaged 40 minutes per game, he shot 53% from the field had 8 rebounds and 8 assist per game to go along with 32.5 points a game. He also had 2.89 steals and nearly a block per game.

Best overall statistical year to date for LeBron James:

-2005-2006 seasons, his third year in the NBA. He averaged 42 minutes per game, he shot 47.2% from the field, grabbed 7.0 rebounds a game, dished out 6.6 assists, and averaged 31.4 point per game. To go along with those numbers he had 1.8 steals and nearly a block per game. LeBron compiled some pretty comparable statistics to Jordan's best year ever... And he only had three years to choose from!

-The conclusion. "Mikes Final Thought". When everything is said and done LeBron will have better numbers then Jordan (PTS, REB, and AST). This will happen for two reasons, LeBron is damn good number one. And number two because he got such an early start. However, with that said, Jordan will have more NBA championships than Lebron. When LeBron's career is over and NBA fans are asked the question; Who was the greatest player of all time? People will hesitate a bit, before saying Michael Jordan!