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STATISTICS
The last category we’re considering for the G.O.A.T. analysis is Statistics. This one is a bit more complicated because how do you statistically evaluate two players from two different eras of basketball, with different rules, at different positions?
The most common way is to look at the eight traditional basketball statistics on a per-game scale, as shown on the chart to the right. Looking at the per-game stats, we see that Jordan leads LeBron in five of them: Points; Steals; Blocks; Free Throw Percentage; and Fewer Turnovers. In contrast, LeBron leads in the other three: Assists; Rebounds; and Field Goal Percentage. Based on these traditional stats, Jordan was more of a scorer who played great defense whereas LeBron is more of an efficient leader who can score and get his teammates open while still contributing to rebounding.
But let's turn to another way of looking at it, Analytics. Probably the most well-known analytic stat is Player Efficiency Rating, or PER for short. Respected basketball analyst John Hollinger created this metric. This stat gives an overall rating to a player's performance based on the traditional stats we just mentioned above. Jordan has led the league in PER seven times, while Lebron only six times. In fact, Jordan has the highest career PER in both the regular season and the playoffs.
Before moving on from analytics, I want to mention a lesser-known stat called Game Score. Game Score measures a player's performance in a single game. This statistic won't tell us who had the better career, but it will tell us who had the greatest games of all time. One problem with this analysis is it started being tracked in 1983, so Wilt Chamberlain or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will not be mentioned in this stat. That being said, of the 100 highest game scores ever recorded, 15 of them belong to Jordan. Comparatively, for Lebron, only three of the top 100 Game Scores.
Ultimately, using these metrics, it's safe to say that Michael Jordan wins Statistics on the G.O.A.T analysis scale.
Game Score Ranking
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