Michael Jordan is an all-time legend and he will always be in the conversation for the best ever, but of course there will be others in the conversation such as Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Kobe Bryant is the second best basketball player of all time because he played with more passion than Jordan and was amazing, but I just don’t think he is as good as MJ. Kobe is arguably the closest to Jordan because they somewhat played in the same time-frame and that is why others like Lebron James can be criticized because he played against “weaker” opponents and in a different time frame.

I feel the time frame has a lot to do with who’s the best and Jordan played in an era where it was everyone trying to beat him; Bryant played for so long that he played in many different era’s in the NBA and the only one that Kobe struggled beating was with the early Detroit Pistons.

Kobe Bryant’s stats are much like Michael Jordan’s and they even say Kobe had no one to help him, except Shaquille O’Neal for a short period, and Jordan always had Scottie Pippen who was another All-Star to help him win his championships. When it comes down to it, I think the stats prove this argument because Jordan has six rings and was MVP for every final he won, but Kobe has five championships and has two final MVP rings.

Lebron James in my time frame has been the best and there are no arguments about it. Even though James is amazing, he just isn’t Jordan. Lebron has three championships and three final MVP’s, but the only thing about Lebron is that he is still active and has a chance to chase Jordan’s accomplishments.

I feel as though Lebron doesn’t have Jordan’s heart; this depicts that James doesn’t have the love for the game Jordan had. Jordan played with the flu during one game because he wanted to win so bad and James came out because he fell on his back;  and this is even compared to many other players who play with more passion, but are not as talented to Lebron. Jordan loved it and I just think Jordan would destroy James in an one on one or an five on five.

James has always has had two All-Star’s, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving; and he even left a worse team to play with two top ten players all-time, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. This is a simple argument because Jordan only had one All-Star, and James had more All-Stars and still hasn’t won as many championships as Jordan.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an outsider in the conversation for many reasons because he played a while back where many didn’t get to watch him. Even though he is a holder of six championships and only has two final MVP’s Jabbar had a lot of other players to help him.

Kareem played in a totally different era, which many say, was way more physical. He played in an era where it was Lakers versus Celtics while Jordan played in an era where it was everyone versus Jordan. Jabbar can be argued because Kareem was a main reason they were a highly ranked team in that decade and always competed with a tough Celtic squad, which many times ended in a fight which is why many believe it was an era full of just two teams always competing in the finals, the Celtics and Lakers.

Despite all the facts about the rings when it comes down to the that last shot or the person you want leading your team it will always be Micheal Jordan. MJ is a legend and no one has ever consistently beat him; there will always be arguments that he is not as good as others but Jordan is just phenomenal.  He is just unstoppable. There are many players all-time that can beat Jordan, but consistently there is not a single player in the world that could have beat Jordan in his prime.