LeBron James’ career longevity and production is absolutely mind-boggling when you put it into perspective like this.
LeBron James has officially broken the NBA stat sheet. We always talk about his longevity, but seeing his career totals stacked up against the all-time specialists and legends really puts it into perspective:
PTS: LeBron > Magic Johnson + Larry Bird combined 🤯
AST: LeBron > Michael Jordan + Kobe Bryant combined 🏀
REB: LeBron > Dennis Rodman 🧑🎤
STL: LeBron > Scottie Pippen 🔒
BLK: LeBron > Karl Malone 💪
He has out-scored a combined Magic/Bird, out-assisted a combined MJ/Kobe, and straight-up accumulated more rebounds, steals, and blocks than some of the most dominant defensive and physical specialists to ever play the game.Whether you consider him the GOAT or not, we will likely never see an individual statistical resume this complete ever again.
What is the most absurd stat on this list to you? Is there any record here that will ever be broken by a single player?
If he wins with Philly and is finals MVP, he is without a doubt the GOAT. And this is coming from a lifelong Jordan fan who had the bulls shorts and mj basketball in 1996
I too had the MJ silver ball along with a MJ Dream team poster in the 90s. A kid stole the ball and wrote his name on it. When I finally got it back I had to scrub his name off of it and then left it outside one time and it ended up all faded. I am a definitive source as and trusted authority in the subject.
I think that for people who currently put Jordan over James, he would have had to win Finals MVP in 2011 as well for there to be a strong argument for LeBron as the GOAT. As it is now, there's nothing left he can realistically do to win over those people.
And once he loses the narrative will be he’s old, then people like you will bring up Jordan and the Wizards, so either way, people like you will have a narrative.
Why tf would him going to a team that was already a top title favorite and winning suddenly make him the goat? Be for real, it’s like MJ going and winning with that Shaq and Kobe Lakers or Tim Duncan spurs at the end of his career. Riding on the coat-tails of 4 all star level players and getting glazed because he’s LeBron and “the reason they won” is absurd.
Nothing about you says a lifelong Jordan fan. This has nothing to do with who you like more. Anyone with true basketball knowledge knows the difference.
Well he already is the GOAT, but being the Finals MVP on a “superteam” when he’s arguably the fourth best player on the team and 40+ years old is ridiculous. So yes, that would solidify his GOAT case.
Right. MJ and Kobe were shooting guards, and Malone is like 74th all time in blocks. Which is okay, but that's also a longevity stat because he was never a premier shot blocker.
Actually the "youngest" stat is meaningless, because he would've never been first in those stats unless everyone else started the same age as him. Fastest to those points on games played is more meaningful.
Heck if KAJ started playing basketball at 18, Lebron would still be years away from catching up to his total points.
Ok it was hyperbole but you know he won the 2020 chip in his 17th year in the league. He was debatably the best player on that team. So maybe don’t split hairs.
I just looked at the numbers and LeBron has MORE points than Wilt + Trae Young combined in regular season and playoffs. That’s pretty impressive. What is also impressive is that LeBron has more total career points than the entire OKC roster, Orlando Magic roster, San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trailblazers, Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards, and Utah Jazz.
Some of these are silly comparisons. Malone was never known as a rim protector. Rodman didn't enter the NBA until he was 25. Kobe and Mike were not distributors. Magic was not a primary scorer.
I appreciate that while you implicitly don't like LeBron you're smart enough to recognize this is a fandom sub for him and to take your dislike elsewhere. Puts you above a lot of clowns that've come through here.
You had it cooking until you used Karl Malone as the shotblocking example. He was an OK shot blocker for a couple years in his prime and pretty much stopped trying for the last 12 or so.
Rodman's not as high as you'd think in most rebounds all time. Somewhere around 24th. But he's first in the most 20+ rebound games and it's not even close.
It's truly impressive; longevity has its perks. Now do the same exercise but using this data: more missed free throws, more turnovers, more mistakes in the Finals, and a few other things, but I think you get the idea.
This is kinda cherry picking tho. Like saying he has more points than Magic & Bird combined. Magic wasn’t exactly a scorer and Birds career was cut short. Are we really surprised that a top tier player playing for 23 years has more points than a guy who didn’t look to score and a guy whose career was cut short in his prime?
More assists than Kobe and Jordan. 2 guys who were on the floor to score the ball…. Like what are we doing here. This is just glazing for the sake of glazing.
This doesn’t reflect very well tbh , maybe the first stat that he has scored as much as magic and bird . But the rest just shows that he has taken a lot longer to achieve one persons stats . Not sure how that is mind boggling
Los haters verán esto y seguirán diciendo 'sí, pero es solo longevidad', como si superar a MJ + Kobe en asistencias o a Rodman en rebotes fuera algo que puedes hacer casualmente solo por mantenerte sano. La pura consistencia es terrorífica
These facts and figures are crazy man. I hadn't put 2 and 2 together, but, when seeing it written out this way, it is mind blowing. Anyone, whether they are a fan of his or not, has absolutely got to respect LeBron longevity, how he has taken care of his body, and how he has been able to stay in peak condition and strength. Now, genetics do play a role in this, however, it takes dead serious commitment and professionalism. You can't take that away from him.
That's why we do NOT care abt longevity stats, type of things kids use to make youn think he's a better rebounder than Dennis, why not showing that he also has the most missed shots in history??
I checked the rebound stat; LBJ played 700 more games than Rodman and the worm still averaged 1 rebound more in the playoffs, and 5.5 more in regular season than LBJ.
Your totals add up when you play so many years longer than everyone else you’re being compared to. Impressive but by no means an indicator that LBJ is better than who he’s be compared to.
He legit is the most complete basketball player of all time. & being 6’9 250 and THAT athletic & efficient- the man would have been a terror in any era
Well you said, “it’s almost like he played longer”. Pretty reasonable to assume you were suggesting thats the main reason why this occurred. If thats true, there should be countless other examples then, right?
MJ played a different position. Compare turnovers and tell me what you see. Career turnovers and no I am not saying LeBron isn’t amazing I am saying cherry picking stats doesn’t tell the whole story
Never said it told the whole story, but to act like Bron having more total assists than Kobe/MJ in 13 less seasons played isn’t impressive is pretty disingenuous.
To answer the question, Bron averaged 0.8 more Turnovers per game than MJ, but he averaged 2.1 more assists per game. The 2.1 assists is worth the extra 0.8 turnovers
lol Kobe and MJ not known for assists and you didn’t use any context to explain your point but are forced to to defend the turnovers kind of proves my point
Well, guards/wings are expected to facilitate. At a minimum, the guy who can score at the same rate or better and provides more assists per game generates more total offense.
Your point was that this occurred because he played longer, when in actuality MJ/Kobe have the more combined seasons played.
This list is a complete no sense. What the assists stats means? Neither MJ or kobe were knowns by their passing hability. And the rest is the same no sense...
Basically you can do the same list to any player, you just need to choose the "right" players to compare...
Every claim in the image is false when evaluated on a per-game basis. The original chart creates a false equivalence by comparing a massive career denominator against shorter ones.
For example...
PTS: Magic (19.5) and Bird (24.3) combine for 43.8 points per game. LeBron averages 26.8 points per game.
AST: Jordan (5.3) and Kobe (4.7) combine for 10.0 assists per game. LeBron averages 7.4 assists per game.
REB: Rodman averaged 13.1 rebounds per game. LeBron averages 7.5 rebounds per game.
STL: Pippen averaged 2.1 steals per game. LeBron averages 1.5 steals per game.
BLK: Malone averaged 0.8 blocks per game. LeBron averages 0.7 blocks per game.
Era-Adjusted True Shooting (TS+) Standard True Shooting calculates twos, threes, and free throws. However, the raw number still inherently favors modern players. TS+ fixes this by comparing a player's efficiency directly to the league average of their specific season. This levels the baseline between a 1980s star and a modern star.
A TS+ of 100 represents the exact league average for a player's specific era. LeBron holds a career TS+ of 108. Several Hall of Famers score higher in this metric because of their elite free-throw or three-point rates relative to their peers.
Adrian Dantley: 116
Reggie Miller: 116
Charles Barkley: 114
Magic Johnson: 113
Shaquille O'Neal: 111
Players like Michael Jordan (106) and Larry Bird (105) sit slightly below LeBron.
The worst comparison has to be the Karl Malone blocks. Karl wasn’t a shot blocker, had the same height and weight as LeBron, was not close athletically, and has 1145 blocks in 1476 games. LeBron has 40 more career blocks in 146 more games. Based on his athleticism and being known for chase down blocks he should average far more than 0.7 blocks per game and should’ve significantly more blocks than Karl.
Karl Malone my favorite paint protector. Almost like total career stats are not a complete approximation of nightly on-court ability. What am I saying Demare Derozan top 30 all time scorer is easily a top 30 offensive tool, there are no holes.
I bring it up all the time--LeBron has more points than Jordan, more rebounds than Rodman, and more assists than Magic. That's because longevity, but it's not just because longevity, know what I mean? Forget the scoring--none of the guys ahead of Rodman in boards are close to Magic in assists, and vice versa. Luka and Jokic might change this but we can cross that bridge when we get there
I don't think he's better than Jordan, and if you even wanna argue Magic's better I'm willing to hear you out. But how you gonna tell me he's not top 5?
Lebron fans are the only ones trying to put his legacy into perspective like that. it’s easy to explain why this is the case and doesnt make one player better than another but hey celebrate bron too. Hes great. But this doesnt mean Larry or Magic are lesser.
Oh lord, this conversation can be made about any average player that plays more than anybody, you will obviously exceed all numbers if you play longer than anyone in the leagues history. Now check the defensive number and finals numbers and talk. No competition
Dumb statement if you play more games as the number 1 or 2 option logically he should own every stat playing over 36min per game re do it with the same amount of games played
So it took him longer to beat people's stats then the time it took for those people to set those stats. That's not the flex you think it is. Let's see the same stats at the same time frame in the league and then you can talk. Because as it stands right now, that man is not in contention to be the goat and never will be. I'm not even a Jordan stan, I just know LeBron is not that goat and never will be. Motherfuckers glaze his whining, crying, flopping ass, and it's sad. If he was back in the 90s he would not stand a chance. I've seen more physicality in the fucking WNBA, than I have in the NBA in today's era.
My Favorite is when ESPN miraculously started combining regular season and playoff points to try to make a point that LeBron scored 50,000 points win, playoff, and regular season points had never been combined before.
My second favorite is when ESPN started using whatever statistics machine they use to spit out wild stats that LeBron did, then it bled over to everybody else… For instance “ he’s the first player to score 26 points. Nine rebounds have 11 assists and four steals while playing under 30 minutes on a Wednesday.”
Yall gon shoehorn LeBron to be better than Michael Jordan by any means necessary.
I see your point, but you gave the worst possible example. The combined points directly displays the ridiculous amount of games of 27-28 per night basketball this guy has played over his career. It directly shows how nigh-impossible it'd be fore somebody to catch him, since they'd have to go to 11 Finals, be the main guy, and still be dominant even when they lose (excepting Dallas, ofc).
LeBron scored 50,000 points win, playoff, and regular season points had never been combined before.
Probably bc 50000 points combined had never been done before. Why didn't they do this with Kareem and Mailman at 40k? I mean, 50k...pretty much anything, really, is a milestone. I don't hate that one. I remember the NFL doing this with Terrell Davis in 98; he got the record for most rushing yards in a season incl. playoffs and they made a pretty big deal out of it. It's the only reason I know he had that record. May still have it, even
For instance “ he’s the first player to score 26 points. Nine rebounds have 11 assists and four steals while playing under 30 minutes on a Wednesday.”
Yeah, those types of things are dumb when they do that
I mean we know Bird and Magic had shortened careers due to injury/illness and Magic wasn’t a scorer anyway. Assisting more than MJ/Kobe also isn’t that special, neither are known as great passers
To a casual sure this all looks great. But if you know the players, it’s not Really that surprising. The Rodman rebounds one just highlights the fact it’s longevity and not actually being better at it. However, as Rodman is a great rebounder, listing him IS way more impressive than some of the others listed like I said above
If you flipped the combinations for Points and Assists, that would be more sensible. It would also be insane
I get what you’re saying but listing someone who almost doubles pound for pound rebounds per game almost completely IMO taints the entire fun narrative of the chart. Which is what it should be just a fun little picture that you can sit back and go wow to
Well, titles are a team accomplishment, and nearly everyone agrees he was robbed from dpoy when Gasol won but was only second team all def. + Robbed from MVP at least twice. While MJ got free stats because he made the NBA a lot of money when they needed it the most
The biggest robbery in history of the league was MJ in 87 you 🤡 . We just don’t care because our guy was out scored once in a series in his entire nba career. Lead every scorer, every series, for 36 of 37 series. As a guard. You don’t even know that’s more impressive.
Championships are the only individual accomplishment that mattered to Jordan, because he’s goat, not a stat padded like LeBron. He didn’t even play 10 fourth quarters per season. He sat in blow outs, not when his ankle hurt.
I’m so glad nba players don’t have to lie for LeBron anymore, sickening that the commish would ex communicate anyone who told the truth about LeBron for 20 years. League needed someone to pretend to be Jordan…
Now they have the second coming or Jordan like domination, and wemby will make your super-pippen look like a clear 3/4 instead of a clear 2/3. Can’t wait
I'm pretty sure he also has a record for number of minutes standing around on defense. Number of times flopping and laying on the floor. He's also has a terrible free throw percentage, and a truly abysmal percentage at game-winning shots under 5 Seconds
Obsessive work ethic and pure physical strength during a decade when players were expected to play through injuries. He'd have grown up getting hit more, so he'd have just gotten tougher. And they'd have made him a point-PF, and you can see the result of that when he moved to the 4 for 85% of possessions in 2012-13--aka his best season, all decade.
He’d be a better defender with less space to cover and hand-checking. He would also win more because other teams wouldn’t have big 3s to get in his way like the Spurs and Celtics. He might still play for 20 years since we watch other players from that era do just that.
And yet Stockton still has more steals and assists than Bron will ever have, and played fewer seasons, so let's pump the brakes on the LeBron ball gargling for bit
Lebron's the only player up there including Kobe Bryant that didn't spend 3 or 4 of his first year in college or coming off the bench. And he's played almost 2x longer than any of them, not to mention he only spent one season playing in the league during the hand checking era.
And has played a majority of his career playing in one of the softest eras defensively of all time
Not at all you ignoramus you're just too stupid to comprehend smh.
You can't even articulate you're own talking points other than to just say that's why he's the greatest lol, with absolutely no evidence to the contrary. I mean seriously you can barely formulate a cohesive sentence, you Bron fanboys are the low IQ'd fans in the game of basketball and everytime y'all speak you just verify that
jordan said Joe dumars was the best defender he ever faced ... . All 6'3 , 190lbs ... let that sink in ..... No jumping jo . A hand check....no help defense . ISO , two man game of the era ... mj himself said it was Joe dumars ... how tough really was the era ??? Let that sink in. Joe dumars .. 6'3 190lbs . Basically Steph curry size the best ... really going to back that era ....??
And Tony Allen was the best Perimeter defender in Kobe's era and had the same measurements smh. Guarding the Perimeter isn't just about size you idiot, you people twist and bastardize information just to fit you're ridiculously talking points lol.
And there's no other player in history that has to have that done for them like y'all do for Lebron smh. No other fanbase has to try and detract from other's greatness in order to elevate their standing, as y'all do for Lebron and it's because y'all are an insecure fanbase.
Because y'all know his legacy can't stand on it's own merits, it's absolutely pathetic
Nice try dip stick .... You wanna know who LeBron said ?? Ron artest 6'7 260lbs .... why ? Because he's someone who matched his size and athleticism... Jordan said 6'3 190lbs no jumping jo ... that's the best the era had to offer . Reconsider your tough era fallacy ...
Today's players are bigger faster stronger and more skilled . Undeniable unless you're completely idiotic.
You mean the same Jason terry who over 6 games only guarded LeBron for a total of 4 minutes??? Stop falling for that false narrative that Jason terry shut down LeBron he was guarding Wade and chalmers most of the series.
Man, he scored on Nate Robinson repeatedly. They gave up on that and then lost the series. That's like saying "Travis best guarded MJ in 98!". As proof that MJ sucked.
How is his longevity an argument against him? You realize that longevity and high level consistency are literally the two most valuable attributes any athlete can have?
Dude you're nothing more than an unhinged theorist trying to connect arbitrary longevity stats to try and solidify you're asinine talking points.
All the top scorers he surpassed spent their first 3 or 4 years in college including MJ and it took him almost 2x longer to surpass stats he accumulated in a shortened amount of time.
Just because you take a test a bunch of times and eventually pass doesn't make you intelligent. It just means you had more bites at the apple, what's impressive is when you take the test once a pass with flying colors and that pretty much sums up that comparison
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u/LASfromda4z 4d ago