Considering last night’s NBA Finals playoff-low scoring output from LeBron — combined with the upcoming statistical breakdown — the lead video seems awfully appropriate. The unnecessary Jordan/LeBron discussion was, of course, initiated by Scottie Pippen’s outburst, something he semi-recanted. Initially, LeBron’s fourth quarter scoring was the discussion point, but after his eight point outing in Game 4 — zero in the fourth quarter — it’s time to put the discussion to bed.
The lead video comes courtesy of Devour.com, and it speaks volumes. So do these NBA Finals statistics:
Finals scoring totals
Player One:
36, 33, 29, 28, 30, 39, 39, 26, 32, 46, 33, 31, 42, 44, 55, 41, 33, 28, 29, 36, 23, 26, 22, 31, 38, 26, 22, 38, 39, 33, 37, 24, 34, 28, 45
Player Two:
14, 25, 25, 24, 24, 20, 17, 8
Obviously, Player One is Jordan and Player Two is LeBron. Another obvious thing that stands out is Jordan has a much larger sample size to pick from, but then again, you’ll also notice he never scored under 22 points in a Finals game, either. It should also be noted that LeBron was much younger in the first four games, and only shot 35% in those outings. He was also asked to do much more for that team than he is now, and for that, James should be thanking Dwyane Wade profusely. Honestly, the better comparison would be Wade’s Finals scoring versus Jordan instead of LeBron’s. Wade has enjoyed much more success being a lethal scoring threat.
Wade’s Finals scoring totals:
28, 23, 42, 36, 43, 36, 22, 36, 29, 32
Granted, a portion of Wade’s output was aided by liberal use of the free throw line — 97 attempts in the first six total, 73 over the last four of those six — but his totals are much more comparable to Jordan’s than are LeBron’s. In 10 NBA Finals games, Wade is averaging almost 33 points a game (32.7). In Jordan’s first 10, he averaged 33.8, exactly 1.1 point more than the Heat guard.
Clearly, the lesson here is forget Kobe and LeBron. If you want to make a comparison to Jordan, especially when it comes to the Finals, Dwyane Wade is the more appropriate player to use, even if his sample size comes against one team in the Dallas Mavericks. Does that lessen Wade’s impact? That’s up to you to decide. Similar Posts:
- LeBron Crushes Jermaine O’Neal
- Dwyane Wade Had A Most Valuable Easter
- D-Wade Has A New Commercial, Too
The Last Word On Jordan and LeBron? is a post from: