I personally don't put much stock in longevity so MJ's (relative) lack thereof is far from a deficit in my book. But that does bring up the perennial Q, namely whether MJ's 30+ avg or Kareem's career total is the greater achievement. I'd easily go with MJ, but certainly can see why another might lean towards KAJ.
Trust me, I gave up on bball forums a long time ago. For one nugget of wisdom you'd have to scroll past endless rubbish. There are some smaller forums that do attract genuine contributions, but their traffic is so low they're just not worth regular visits. One benefit of having fewer forums in a more niche bourgeois sport like tennis is that chances of coming across useful comments/contributors are higher. And truth be told, most of the posters write at least somewhat intelligibly.
As for LBJ's true potential or his capacity to match MJ at any rate... gotta disagree with you on that one. Of course LeBron's got the size and power advantages but they come with several disadvantages as well which are rarely acknowledged. For one thing he was never as quick as MJ or Kobe for that matter, hence his tendency to get burned by the quickest guards and his relatively inferior D to both (I'm sure LBJ defenders would love to throw out stats right now). In fact both MJ and Kobe were able to pull up either way much better, and while LBJ's left hand has improved he's still nowhere near as ambidextrous.
Ah, but with these supposed advantages they still weren't able to shoot a higher %, you say? There are several reasons why this is a misleading comparison, but to wit:
- As a PF LBJ is SUPPOSED to shoot a higher % than guards like MJ and Kobe.
- By a similar token (you knew this was coming), both of these guys unlike LBJ played in Jackson's triangle which being a shooter's offense limited their drives to the hoop.
- Even with that difference LBJ's edge in career shooting % over MJ is fairly minuscule, which speaks volumes for MJ's shooting prowess. (Those biiiiiig hands sure helped. Kobe's own paws aren't so small either but MJ's were ginormous. Of course Mike was also more explosive.)
- Shooters get into a groove by shooting more, which today's small ball and lack of hand-checking encourage. (I know I don't need to tell you Mike was constantly hand-checked in his pre-DC years.) Also reflecting this change today's officiating is awfully generous to any shooter who initiates contact, hence LBJ's frequent layup drills which boost up his #s further.
I'll give LeBron credit for improving his perimeter shooting and also admit both MJ and Kobe were never elite perimeter shooters themselves (prime for prime Bean was better, if by a hair), but it's a near certainty these two would be posting better %s under today's conditions. And I hate to keep belaboring this point but they were also the biggest a-holes I've seen in any sport (I know I say this a lot but Kobe is the only one I can think of who could match MJ in sheer egomania), while LBJ's ego is of a more fragile kind which seems to need constant outside validation to keep burning.
You could say LBJ's edge in size, power and versatility overrides whatever advantages Kobe might have, but I don't think they're enough to cancel out MJ's. I'm something of a defense fetishist and the fact that LBJ is a good but not great defender while MJ's one of the all-time elites all but clinches it for me. I don't think LeBron with all the motivation and training in the world could overcome Mike's leaner mass and lower center of gravity. It may be a cliche but you could hardly build a more perfect basketball specimen than Jordan.
Cool.
The correct answer is Kareem, for one reason: in that skyhook he had the most stoppable weapon in the sport's history. You're quite right that Hakeem was the better athlete, but that's not enough to override Kareem's superior O as Hakeem's Dream Shake would be rendered mostly ineffective by the very best defensive centers like Russell.