"My motivation," then-Cavaliers forward LeBron James told SI in the summer of 2016, "is this ghost I'm chasing. The ghost played in Chicago."
Since that summer, James has inched closer and closer to matching Hall of Fame guard Michael Jordan's legacy. He passed Jordan's all-time point total in March 2019, and passed every NBA player in history's point total on Feb. 7. In ’20, James steered the Lakers to an NBA title, his fourth.
Now, with Los Angeles in excellent shape up 3–1 in its Western Conference semifinal series against the Warriors, the whispers are beginning again: Is James better than Jordan?
At a volume slightly louder than a whisper, ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith declared Tuesday morning that a Lakers title would put James within striking distance of Jordan.
"I will acknowledge that I have found it insulting for anybody to think that [James] belongs above Michael Jordan," Smith said. "If he were to win a fifth title this year, I would no longer feel insulted by that discussion."
With another championship, James would become just the 15th player to win five or more titles without playing for the Celtics. He would join forward Robert Horry as the only two players to win five or more titles with three or more teams.
If LeBron wins a fifth NBA title, @stephenasmith says "it would warrant a discussion" of passing MJ on the basketball Mount Rushmore 👀 pic.twitter.com/YR3tuBkCpu
— First Take (@FirstTake) May 9, 2023
"I would have to concede that, yeah, I still wouldn't put him above Jordan," Smith said. "But I understand others who might think otherwise."
Smith cited James’s role in Los Angeles’s wholesale post-trade deadline turnaround—a turnaround that has the Lakers knocking on the door of their second Western Conference finals in four years.
