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Which Free Agent Would You Rather Have, Michael Jordan or LeBron?
No, Michael is not coming out of retirement for a fourth time, but with the free agency frenzy currently going on in the NBA, I thought it would be fun to image “His Airness” as a current NBA free agent. More specifically, debating whether you would sign Michael Jordan or LeBron James if Jordan was a free agent coming off his seventh season in the NBA like LeBron?Lets look at the numbers of each superstar from their seventh season. LeBron averaged 27.8 points, 1 block, 1.6 steals, 8.6 assists and 7.3 rebounds per game during the ’09 - ’10 season. He had a 50.3 FG% and 33.3 3PT%. Those are obviously some tremendous all around numbers for Lebron during his seventh year in the Association and were enough to propel him to a second consecutive MVP award at the young age of only 25 (click here).
Jordan’s seventh season was his most successful as he helped the Bulls win their first NBA Title defeating the L.A. Lakers in the 1991 NBA Finals (click here). He averaged 31.5 points, 1 block, 2.7 steals, 5.5 assists and 6 rebounds per game during the ’90 - ’91 season. He had a 53.9 FG% and 31.2 3PT%. He won both the regular season and NBA Finals MVP awards. This was Jordan’s second (’87 - ’88 & ’90 - ’91) regular season MVP award by the age of 27.
We all know what happened after the ’91 season for MJ and the Bulls, but for this discussion, let’s assume Jordan is a current NBA free agent who is coming off his seventh season in the Association just like LeBron. If I was an NBA coach, GM or owner (any of the three would be sweet btw), I would have to go with Jordan for one simple fact. In this scenario, Jordan has already won one NBA Championship. Although James is physically more imposing at 6’ 8’’ and 250 pounds, Jordan had already demonstrated his insatiable desire to win. Quite simply, his intangibles are greater than “King James’”.
So that’s my vote. Jordan and not LeBron would get the max contract from me. I think this is a fun debate though with many variables. Out of the two basketball superstars, who would get your team’s max free agent deal, Jordan or LeBron? I almost forgot. The ’87 Fleer Michael Jordan RC featured in the post image is NOT the real deal. At least I’m 99.9% sure it isn’t. No where on the card does it actually say, “Reprint”, but it was sold to me by the seller as a reprint. It’s a high quality reprint on nice card stock, but the background and graphics should be a little more crisp and in focus if it were real. The devil is in the details.
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