Skip to content

Olajuwon: Jordan 'a far superior player' to LeBron

Streeter Lecka / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Few debates get basketball fans talking quite like comparing current superstars to Michael Jordan, so allow Hall of Fame big man Hakeem Olajuwon to fan the flames.

"When people start comparing (LeBron James) with Jordan then that's not a fair comparison," Olajuwon told Arjun Kharpal fromCNBC's Worldwide Exchange.

"Jordan was a far more superior player in a very tough league, he was very creative," Olajuwon added. "That's not taking away anything from LeBron because he is a great player but it is not a fair comparison because Jordan is a far superior player."

James is, without a doubt, the best player to grace an NBA court since Jordan, with all due respect to Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, among others, but he'll be hard-pressed to ever overcome the legend of His Airness.

Between older players like Olajuwon and fans alike wrongfully convinced their era was superior, the mythical stature of Jordan growing with each passing year, and his six championship rings likely out of reach, LeBron usually gets the short end of the stick in debates, despite the fact that his level of play is the closest to Jordan's most have ever seen.

Jordan is the greatest of all time, and even James still has work to do to catch him, but Olajuwon's notion that MJ was "far superior" isn't fair to LeBron, especially when no reasoning or analysis is given for the proclamation.

For what it's worth, here's how the numbers stack up through 12 seasons for each player, according to Basketball Reference:

Player PPG RPG APG SPG BPG TS% PER Win Shares per 48
Jordan 31.7 6.3 5.6 2.6 0.9 58.4 29.4 0.277
James 27.4 7.2 6.9 1.7 0.8 58.1 27.7 0.241

Both players won four MVP awards through their first 12 seasons, while Jordan already had four championships to James' two, although James' 12th season is only half-done.

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox