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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When LeBron James chased down Andre Iguodala's layup in the last stages of the last game of the NBA Finals and spiked it off the backboard like a wide receiver's final touchdown dance move, it became one of the greatest plays in NBA Finals history.
But what if the celebrating wide receiver won the Super Bowl? In the last minutes? For the Browns?
It was like that.
But it's still not breathing the air up there where the Legend of Michael Jordan soars, legs splayed, heading for the rim, in the same pose as the bronze statue of him outside the United Center in Chicago.
"The best there ever was. The best there ever will be," reads the inscription on its base.
James admitted he wants to be considered better than basketball's icon of icons in a story by his Boswell, Lee Jenkins, in the new Sports Illustrated.
"I'm chasing a ghost. The ghost played in Chicago," said James.
Scorer vs. Passer
Scoring titles meant a lot to Jordan, although not to the extent of Wilt Chamberlain, who had to set all the records to validate himself because he had only two rings.
Jordan owned the air, serving injunctions to gravity, but he was not great until he learned to share the ball and trust his teammates.
James is an unprecedented combination of size, chiseled power and court vision. With his passing, he is more Magic Johnson than Jordan.
The most tangible way a great player makes his teammates better is by passing to them for easy shots after attracting swarms of defenders, in the same way that Kevin Durant is drawn to championship shortcuts.
Coachable?
Bulls coach Phil Jackson always said Jordan was very coachable with a high basketball IQ because of the great respect he had for his college coach at North Carolina, Dean Smith.
James is a basketball savant, but he was close to uncoachable in his final days with Mike Brown in his 1.0 version here. LeBron 2.0 wasn't much better with David Blatt.
Competitiveness
Anyone who played with Jordan didn't need thick skin, he needed armor. If B.J. Armstrong, a shooting guard, missed a couple of shots with Jordan's feeds, Michael would run by Jackson on the bench and snarl, "Get his (butt) out!"
Jordan called Will Perdue "Will Vanderbilt," because the SEC school was Perdue's alma mater and because "You're not good enough to be named after a Big Ten school."
In a critical playoff game against Charlotte, insiders say, Jordan backed off Muggsy Bogues, a 5-3 Charlotte guard, leaving him open for a 3-pointer his team had to have.
"Shoot it, you (flipping) midget!" Jordan said.
Bogues shot an airball.
James had all the immaturity of his youth in his first Cavs' term. After four years of Pat Riley's leadership course in Miami, James was a different player when he returned to Cleveland.
Still, even in this championship season, Tyronn Lue, who succeeded Blatt at midseason, had to explain to James after a one-sided loss in Miami why laughing and joking with former teammate Dwyane Wade at halftime was not the most felicitous choice for James, him being a leader and all.
Jordan would not only never have done that, he would have eaten the face of the teammate who did.
Supporting cast
Jordan had Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, the best sidekick since Paul Newman had Robert Redford, along for all six titles and another Hall of Famer, Dennis Rodman, on the team for the second three-peat.
James had Wade and Chris Bosh, whom he has called "two Hall of Famers" in Miami. Wade is certainly a lock. In the past season, James had Kyrie Irving erupting into superstardom in the Finals and Kevin Love.
In his Miami defection, James also undeniably set the template for Durant.
Jordan didn't leave the Bulls until he had beaten the hell out of everybody who once stood in their way.
In Jordan's first 13 seasons, ending when he was 34 and retired for the second time, he played 2,591 minutes fewer than James, who will be 32 at the turn of the year, and has already played in 13 seasons.
The One
Jordan won his six NBA championships and six Finals MVPs in as many tries. James has three rings and three Finals MVPs in seven tries, the last six in a row. He won two rings in Miami, one here.
But what a one!
James led the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit in NBA Finals history, the third team ever to do so at any playoff stage without home-court advantage, and the first visiting team to win a seventh game in the Finals since 1978.
He was the driving force for the greatest upset in terms of regular season records in Finals history. The Cavs won 16 games fewer than Golden State.
James also scored 41 points in both Game 5 and Game 6. He added 27 in Game 7, in which he also had a triple-double, only the third in seventh game Finals history.
He led both teams in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals in the Finals, a first-ever "stat-a-clysm" worthy of Wilt.
He spoiled a dream season by the Golden State Warriors, the injured Cavs' conquerors in the previous Finals, who had won 73 games and lost nine, an all-time best.
James was the biggest reason why the Cavs broke a 52-year championship drought in Cleveland.
All of it was enabled by the greatest rejection since Rhett told Scarlett he didn't give a damn.
It was won for the ages.
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