Crunching the Numbers: Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James; Who Is the NBA's Greatest Of All Time? (Video)

LeBron James has cemented his status as the best basketball player in the present era following his terrific performance in the title-clinching game against the San Antonio Spurs last week.

James has already accumulated four regular-season MVP awards, two NBA Finals MVPs, and two NBA championships along with multiple All-Star Game appearances and All-NBA selections in only his 10^th season in the league.

This massive amount of hardware coupled with worldwide influence should be enough to catapult James to the top of the basketball world. At age 28, James is still capable of doing more great things on the hardcourt that could push him closer to the ultimate goal of every basketball player, and that's to become the Greatest Player of All Time - a title exclusively owned by Michael Jordan.

In the wake of the Heat's back-to-back championships, praises and honors also poured onto James for pulling off such an incredible feat. Several basketball analysts raved about the Heat star's efficiency throughout the postseason and the way he transformed into one of the most fearsome closers in NBA history.

Don't get it wrong, LeBron James deserves all the praises in the world. He's a basketball genius in a generation of faster and more athletic ballers. However, to call James the greatest basketball player ever or consider him on pace to be the gold standard in the sports of basketball is a cardinal sin, a complete lack of respect to the legend that is Jordan.

Basketball analysts love to use stats as a gauge to compare a player from another, so it's just right to crunch these data and see if where James exactly now in his pursuit to beat his Airness.

Career Average in their first 10 'FULL' seasons

Setting aside the 1985-1986 season (broken foot) and 1994-1995 (comeback from baseball), Jordan averaged 31.9 points, 5.6 assists, and 6.37 rebounds per game in his first 10 full seasons in the league. In this span, Jordan's best statistical year came in the 1988-1989 seasons, where he averaged 32.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 8.0 assists while shooting 54 percent on the floor and 85 percent from the free-throw line.

As for James, he averaged 27.6 points, 6.9 assists, and 7.3 rebounds per game in his first 10 full seasons. His best statistical season so far came in the 2009-2010 season, where he won his second MVP award with the Cleveland Cavaliers after averaging 29.7 points, 8.6 assists, and 7.3 rebounds. He shot 50 percent from the field and 77 percent  from the free-throw line.

Achievements

Jordan had already nine scoring titles and 10 all-star appearances (two All-Star MVPs) in his first 10 full seasons. He had four regular-season MVPs, five NBA championships, and five NBA Finals MVP during that span. He was also selected nine times in All-NBA and eight times in All-Defensive team.

LeBron, on the other hand, had one scoring title in 2008. He has four regular-season MVPs, two Finals MVPs, and two championship rings. He appeared in an All-Star game nine times (two All-Star MVPs) along with seven All-NBA first team and five All-Defensive first team selections.

Postseason Career Performance - the anti-thesis to NNL

Jordan averaged 33.4 points, 5.7 assists and 6.4 rebounds throughout his postseason career while James produced 28.1 points, 6.7 assists and 8.6 rebounds in the playoffs.

It's true that James has 19 playoff series wins or a career playoff percentage of .638 percent. However, despite having only 13 career playoff series or a playoff series win percentage of .587 during the time he won his second ring, Jordan was a perfect 2-for-2 when it counts the most - that is the NBA championship. On the other hand, James didn't win it all in his first two finals appearances (0-4 to the Spurs as a Cavalier and 2-4 to the Mavericks as a Heat) before winning back-to-back titles over the last two seasons.

Another barometer that could add to Jordan's greatness is he played in the Golden Era of the NBA, when legends like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, and John Stockton were roaming larger than life. Moreover, this period also featured dominant true centers like David Robinson, Shaquille O'Neal, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo, making the interior tougher to penetrate. However, Jordan made it look easy like a hot knife on butter.

James played in a period where hand-checking and elbow anchoring are a no-no. This period also lacks true centers that can contest shots after shots and dominate the play in the interior on the other end. In fact, it's a high-scoring universe where 'small-ball' prevails and brutal defense hardly exists.

James and Jordan both define their respective era. Both of them are great players in their own rights. But for the coveted title as the greatest player of all-time, there's only one of them who deserves to sit on his thrown for eternity - it's MJ. It's all because numbers never lie.