Yes, I said it. LeBron James is already better than Michael Jordan. Is everyone still there? Did the world stop spinning? I was worried that making that statement might upset nature's balance or cause a disturbance in the force so strong that the Jedis in other galaxies would feel it. After all, the feats of His Airness grows every day. He averaged a quintuple double over the course of his career, right? Didn't he fight crime in the streets during halftime of his games? Pretty soon, Michael Jordan will be getting the credit for hanging the first peach basket on the wall in 1891.

This is the problem when it comes to debating LeBron and MJ. LeBron doesn't get compared to MJ the player; he gets compared to MJ the myth. LeBron has no chance against the myth of MJ, who inspired a whole generation to be "Like Mike." However, when you compare the two players purely as basketball players, the debate begins to tilt in LeBron's favor.

Let's get one thing out of the way right off the bat: Michael Jordan went 6-0 in the Finals and LeBron is currently 2-4. This is the first, and usually only, point that it is brought up in any Jordan-LeBron debate, and while it is an acceptable starting point when comparing the two, it does not tell the whole story. This is because their records in the Finals do not take into account the quality of teams they played against or the caliber of the teams they played on. Jordan was lucky enough to be surrounded by one of the greatest teams of all time, especially for the Bull's second three-peat. Jordan's teams were stellar from top to bottom, and he also had the second greatest coach in NBA history in Phil Jackson (Sorry, Pop is the best). Dennis Rodman was a rebounding machine and elite defender. Scottie Pippen did a little bit of everything including being one of the best defenders in NBA history. In fact, Jordan never won a championship without Pippen. That's not to mention the more than capable role players that surrounded Jordan over the course of his career. Admittedly, Jordan probably faced a tougher roads to the Finals, but his opponents in the Finals were not as good as LeBron's opponents.

The fact of the matter is, MJ never beat a team in a playoff series that was better than his Bull's teams. His team was considerably better than the opponent in every single Finals they made. When he didn't have a marginally better team in the Playoffs, he lost. He never came close to beating Larry Bird's Celtics and lost to the Detroit Pistons in three consecutive postseasons. Had Larry Bird not injured his back, it might have took him even longer to reach the Finals. The Bulls only managed to beat the Pistons when they were on their decline. The Bulls finally made the Finals in 1991 where they faced a Lakers team that was also on the decline and had just lost Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. MJ's next two championships came against the Portland Trailblazers and the Phoenix Suns, who were both clearly inferior teams to the Chicago Bulls. MJ then decided to retire after the Bulls victory over the Suns in '93 to pursue a career in baseball. Surely the Bulls were completely lost without MJ? That was hardly the case as the the '94 Bulls, without MJ, were just as good without him as they only won two fewer games in the regular season than they did the previous year. The Bulls were one horrible call away from making it to the Eastern Conference Finals and, if we're being honest, they probably would've beat the Houston Rockets in the Finals. This shows why the notion that Jordan won by himself is utterly ridiculous and it also really highlights just how great MJ's teams were compared to LeBron's. When LeBron left the Cavaliers in 2010, they became a lottery team the next season. When LeBron left the Heat in 2014, they failed to make the playoffs the next season.

MJ's fourth championship came in 1996 after he came back from retirement against a Seattle Supersonics team that was hardly capable of beating the Bulls. The biggest challenge of his Finals career came against the Utah Jazz in his last two appearances. The Utah Jazz were a very solid team led by the likes of John Stockton and Karl Malone, but they were still no match for a Bulls team at the height of their power. When you look at LeBron's Finals appearances, you see a very different story. LeBron has faced superior teams than his own in the Finals in 4 of his 6 appearances. The San Antonio Spurs were the better team each time they faced LeBron, yet LeBron managed to beat the Spurs in one of their match-ups. It's not a stretch to say that the Spurs teams that LeBron were all-time great teams. This years Golden State Warrior were also historical great and yet LeBron was able to make the series competitive by himself. The only true blemish in LeBron's career was the 2011 loss to Dallas and that Mavericks team was really good. Their game plan to slow LeBron was also excellent as they essential packed the pain and forced LeBron to make make the right basketball play. LeBron was simply not ready to win just like Jordan was ready to win until his 7th year in the league. LeBron gets criticized for losing in the Finals, but everyone chooses to ignore the fact that it took Jordan 6 years to make it to the Finals. When it comes down to it, the only difference between the two's failures is that LeBron's came on the big stage while MJ's came before. For whatever reason, people are more forgiving of players failing before the Finals than they are of players who actually reach the Finals and lose and that's completely ridiculous when you really think about it. LeBron should get more credit for reaching the Finals with subpar teams than MJ should for failing to get there his first 6 season in the the league.

Now, I know what you're saying, "LeBron had to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to win a championship. MJ never would've left to join up with other stars." Maybe that's because he never had to? The Bulls had great management and coaching that surrounded him with championship caliber teammates. Do you think the Cleveland Cavaliers front office was competent enough to do that? After all, we are talking about the organization that took Anthony Bennett with the number one pick a few years ago. The best they were ever able to give LeBron in his first run with the team was Mo Williams and Shaq, who was way past being useful. Cleveland is only a contender now because of the pure luck of winning the lottery three times in four years and only screwing up once, which for Cleveland, should be considered a miracle. And yes, LeBron played with both Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but what people refuse to acknowledge is just how flawed those Heat teams were. None of the those teams had a competent center and they all suffered from suspect play from the point guard position. The Heat were only able to overcome their huge flaws because of LeBron's versatility. After Chris Bosh went down in the 2012 Playoffs, the Heat were forced to reinvent themselves on the fly. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the Heat were able to revolutionize the game by playing small ball. This was only possible because LeBron was capable of playing and defending any position on the floor allowing the Heat to play true position-less basketball. MJ couldn't and didn't do that.

That finally brings us to the pure basketball aspect of the debate. Michael Jordan was a truly unstoppable scorer. He could take over games by putting the ball in the hole at an unprecedented rate. But what separates LeBron from Jordan is his ability to take over a game in more ways than simply scoring. While LeBron can score at will, he is still a better passer than he is scorer. Every team that goes against LeBron faces the tough decision of whether to commit to try and stop him from scoring and risk him picking you apart with his basketball IQ and incredible passing ability or letting him score at will and take his teammates out of the game. There is no good decision here because he can beat you either way. LeBron's fingerprints are all over everything that happens on the basketball court in ways that don't always show up the stat sheet. Everything that happens for his team occurs because of LeBron's mere presence on the basketball court. This was especially evident in the this years Finals as he did everything for the Cavaliers. His supporting cast without him on the floor was barely capable of getting a shot off and was completely lost. The Cavaliers weren't able to give him a minute of rest without being blown off the floor by the Warriors. As great as MJ was at scoring, he wasn't capable of dominating a game in as many ways as LeBron can and that's what creates the separation between LeBron and MJ.

Michael Jordan is clearly the best scorer to ever play the game. He's also always going to have the better resume over LeBron, but that doesn't mean he's the better player. If we are going purely by resumes, Bill Russell is the best player to ever play the game. If we are going purely by stats, Wilt Chamberlain is the best player ever. But if we are going by who has the biggest impact on their team, King James reigns.