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Third of Americans think Michael Jordan could beat LeBron James – today

By Alexandra Huber

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One-third of polled Americans believe that Michael Jordan could beat LeBron James if the two played today.

According to a new sports-focused survey from Public Policy Polling, 34 percent of those polled believe that Michael Jordan could beat LeBron James in a game of one-on-one today. That’s right, today. Not LeBron circa 2013 and Jordan circa 1993 – today.

Furthermore, only 54 percent of those polled believe that LeBron would beat MJ. Those numbers are truly unbelievable.

Full disclosure: few people are bigger MJ supporters than I. In my mind, he is the greatest of all-time. However, rational, impartial people could argue with me on this. It is not an indisputable fact.

Claiming that Jordan could beat LeBron today, in 2015 is off-the-reservation crazy. All 34 percent of those surveyed had to have been Bulls fans or LeBron haters. There is no other explanation.

Set aside LeBron’s personal achievements of the past decade because Jordan had plenty of his own in his day. Take personal opinion out of it for a second and look at the facts.

Michael Jordan is fifty-two years old. LeBron is only 30. That’s a 22 year age gap – that’s a recent college graduate.

And it’s not just about age, LeBron has size on his side. Jordan is 6-foot-6 and weighed 218 pounds in his playing days. Today he hovers around 250, and that’s not all muscle. King James is 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, all muscle. That’s the size of an NFL player but he still manages to fly around the court with incredible speed.

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Speed, right, let’s talk about that for a second. If both players ran a 40-yard dash right now, I’m quite confident LeBron would have a serious edge. Just a hunch, but I think that 22-year age gap makes a difference.

Now, to his credit, MJ can still dunk. At least, he could two years ago, but MJ is far removed from his prime.

Debunking this ridiculous assertion is not an insult to MJ. Rather, the fact that we are even debating it is a credit to His Airness.

Jordan may be the greatest of all time, but King James has that nickname for a reason.

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