Wednesday, August 15th, 2012 at 10:05 am  |  366 responses

Jim Boeheim Thinks LeBron James Could be Better Than Michael Jordan


Syracuse University head coach Jim Boeheim, who has been a longtime assistant for USA Basketball, has observed an endless amount of talent during his career. And according to the uber-experienced coach, Michael Jordan always was the best player he’d ever seen play, by a mile. Well, that was until the 2012 version of LeBron James arrived. Via Syracuse.com: “‘I’ve always thought Michael Jordan was the best player that I’ve ever seen,’ Boeheim said. ‘I always have and I didn’t think it was close. I’m not so sure any more. And I love Michael Jordan. I’m not so sure anymore. This guy is 6-foot-9 and 260 pounds, and he’s getting better. He works on his game. His shooting is getting better. He’s a phenomenal, phenomenal basketball player. I love this game; I love the history of this game. I know we’ve had great, great players through the years. He’s like Magic Johnson with Michael Jordan-type skills as well.’”

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  • http://gmail.com z

    nbk: my man i meant no offense in guessing you to be 35, what made me think that wasn’t your opinion on this particular topic, which, like you said, i already essentially agreed with. I guessed you to be 35 because on OTHER threads you make arguements, points, etc that demonstrated an understanding of the game’s past, the big picture of bball in american society, and the way you talk about the 80′s sometimes, i feel pretty confident you musta lived thru them. Also, i definitely didn’t say that people only consider mike the GOAT bc of his brand–they consider him that because there’s never been a winner who excelled in effective, efficient, hero ball like mike. But Lebron COULD one day exceed mike (i doubt it, but i strongly believe that we should stay open to the possibility of SOMEONE, SOMEDAY doing it). And IF bron does one day pass $ up, i have a sneaking suspicion that alot of the folks who have a voice in the mainstream media will be nitpicking bron’s legacy the same way ppl nitpick kob’s today.

  • http://gmail.com z

    @pposse
    if you really are 28, you need to step your commenting game up, because you’re the chicago bulls’ version of the seed–a homer whose opinion doesn’t get taken seriously. Homers have no intellectual credibility. Impartiality is kinda key to being fair. If you’re not going to have a fair debate, what’s the point of being on here “debating?” i shouldn’t have to explain the rudimentary basics of debating to a 28 year old.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    I took that a an insult lol idk my bad. Essentially we agree, it just seemed like you were passive aggressively suggesting I’m set in my ways or something along those lines. And I’m 25 not 35

  • http://www.fiba.com Darksaber

    Well this was a jolly good read, not all of it, skipping over Rabies-Seed’s inanities and Kobe hyperbole reveals the usual dismissal of fact and manipulation of statements to suit his needs….i.e., the usual.
    Ignoring the fact that a Lebron driven post devolved into the usual ‘Kobe rules all’ battle, lots of interesting pov’s in this thread; and hardly any insults, my needling of Dirk-hater Seed being one of the exceptions. (Yeah i know, getting swept in the playoffs by a german and his mates hurts, right?)
    Nice, felt like Slamonline when it was still fun to read opinions, which all of this is btw. Yeah,
    e all feel strongly about these guys and their place in history, some more than others, but these hypotheticals have been discussed here ad nauseum (i’d know, participated in a few over the years).
    Ranking players is subjective, no amount of conviction is going to change a commenters bias.

  • pposse

    Z, there is MJ and then there is the rest. On a side note, I do think that Kobe deserves to be compared to MJ albeit he loses in every single category every time. The only excercise this will accomplish is make MJ look that much better. The facts are Kobe is an MVP, 5 time NBA champ, has a very similar basketball game (as MJ), known by coaches to be amongst the smartest bball players in the league, All NBA honors for like 12 seasons, 2 finals MVP’s, somewhere amongst the all time leading scorers, dropped 81 pts in a single game (this is about the time in his career where most nba fans, analysts had to seriously consider his place amongst the greats imo) etc etc. But like you said Kobe’s “mental issues” kills it. Stop right here. It’s only my opinion, but i sincerely doubt that MJ would have ever let Shaq leave if he had the opp to play with him. Shaq = rings. So yeah Kobe has 5 rings, but for his standards, and most importantly my standards, he underachieved. If your cool with underachievment thats fine, but his underachievements have me ranking him in the top 15 rather than top 10. Even now, any legit all star/superstar ball player with Pau and Howard should be thinking ring or bust. We will see what happens this year, but if it aint no ring, he gets a mark against him. I gave my reasons as to why i don’t think Lebron is near MJ level yet today too, if you wanto think thats me being a homer thats on you. I do think that LBJ will go down as the 2nd best of all time when its all said and done, but he is not touchin MJ thus far in his career (a big strike goes against him for losing to Dallas last year, there was no excuse for that).

  • http://gmail.com z

    @nbk yea trust me man youre one of the most impartial voices on here. And you got a good appreciation for the past greats which is all too rare, but at the same time you do a good job of keeping it all in perspective and not worshipping the old school. @pposse that last post you dropped was great, i cant even nitpick that. Very well said. Tho i disagree on one thing: most fans agree that from 1997-2004 the lakers were shaq’s team. I agree with that.but by that logic that means shaq deserves the lion’s share of the credit for the success and by extension i feel he deserves the lion’s share of the blame (being outta shape, the infighting with kob, ripping buss about his contract situation). So in a sense kob underachieved but i think it was more shaq who did that. I think kob maxed out his potential better than any other star of his generation (occasionally to the detriment of his team, but that just shows where his priorities were at) and i give mad props for that.

  • http://gmail.com z

    @ “the philosopher” using an ellipse doesnt necessarily make a thought “deep” or “philosophical” or whatever it is you’re shooting for. Just thought someone should tell you before ya make nietzche do a somersault in his grave lol

  • http://gmail.com z

    Sorry if it ever seems im baggin on you philo. The reason is that, to me, a philosopher is someone who thinks outside the box
    Honestly i havent seen much of that from you. Ever.
    .

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    Co-sign LakeShow at 6:03. And for your previous comment on the Yao Ming thread… you are wrong. Obviously Tarzan likes me.

  • Hibah

    WHY DO PEOPLE EVER COMPARE MJ AND LEBRON?!?! MICHAEL JORDAN IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME. LEBRON IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TALENT WISE, AND HE ALREADY RUINED HIS LEGACY WITH THE WHOLE CLEVELAND BETRAYAL. JORDAN IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME.

  • Zoom

    Say what you want about LeBron, @Hibah & um no he didn’t ruin his legacy he helped it. Anyways its honestly sad that people won’t give other players a chance to be better than MJ they automatically say “OH MJ BEST PLAYER EVER” Yes so for he is but we’ll never know who the better player was to this day yes MJ is but LeBron’s career isn’t even close to over. He’s gonna be a beast this year & might even win another ring. i’m not a fan of Kobe at all, but he’s an amazing player although as good as he is he’s not an MJ or LeBron…

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    I actually agree that Shaq deserves a ton of credit for the Lakers failures. I had a discussion with Myles a while back about those teams, Shaq and Kobe’s penchant for getting swept, and what it says about them as players.
    I mean, Lakers fans argue that if Kobe had LeBron’s minutes early in his career he would have been a force, but then they blame Shaq for the Lakers getting swept in the playoffs all those years like Kobe wasn’t on the team and couldn’t have helped.
    I think Shaq was the most important player, Kobe was clearly the second best and eventually almost equally important if not as impactful.
    Kobe was the best ballhandler and shot creator. Probably the best passer. But despite all those skills, he wanted to be the number one scoring option instead of just filling those other roles and continuing to rack up championships.
    It’s hard for me to understand why so many people reject this reality.

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    ^Fair.

  • http://slamonline.com The Philosopher

    Shout out @z.

  • http://gmail.com z

    Lol @ philosopher. @allenp theres no question in my mind that kob was the best passer on them teams and you make a great point that had he just kept what i call his “01playoffs mindset” then he would probly have several more rings. I also find it interesting that he gets so much criticism for, in essence, choosing to push the boundaries and limits of his own abilities instead of deferring to a guy whose devotion to the sport and improving his talents were inferior to his own. You and i are both big fans of iverson. I firmly believe kobe was motivated to abandon that 01 playoff mindset in part due to envy for iverson–his mvp, the unconditional love of the peoples like you and i, his renegade image. Point im trying to make is basically just that bball is a simple team game based on unselfishness played by very complicated humans. Maybe “selfishness” isnt a trait that should be criticized (it apparently doesnt get much critical analysis by most americans when it comes to income distribution, which is infinitely more important) when it comes to a sport.

  • http://none stan weier

    looks like somebody just said something detrimental about Jesus and Mother Mary. this over-protection on Michael jordan is ridiculous. if 27 year old Michael Jordan would play against 27 year old Lebron James he would be murdered.

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