Lebron doesn't even need to win a few other titles to pass MJ in my opinion, he is already the greatest of all time. That rings argument Americans come up with is the dumbest criteria to compare players. Ironic thing is they immediately move away from that argument when you remind them Bill Russell has 11 rings. Could you ever say Derek Fisher or Robert Horry was a better NBA player than the likes of Barkley, Malone etc just because they have 5 and 7 rings? This is a bit similar to downplaying Messi and saying unless he wins the WC for Argentina, he won't be called the greatest in football.
Nah sorry, you're twisting the opposing argument to make it easier to beat. It's not the fact that Jordan won 6 rings that makes him, in my opinion, the GOAT. It's the way he hauled the team over the line, time and time again, with tremendous talent and also the most psychopathic obsession with winning you'll ever see. The earlier post about Jordan being 6-0 in Finals is pertinent, because it shows how tuned-in he was on the biggest stage. Did he ever fail in any of those 6 seasons? I don't recall it. As a Jazz fan, I know all-too-well that dreaded sense of inevitability when you went up against Jordan in his prime. He was just cruel.
Jordan did have a decent supporting cast around him, and they did manage to get to the 2nd round in the playoffs during his first retirement, but they went from 47 wins to an astonishing 72 in the season he came back, and 69 the year after. Huge difference. And to bring in the likes of Steve Kerr as an example of the advantages he had is a bit of a stretch. Kerr was a nothing player before he teamed with MJ - he averaged less than 3 ppg the season prior to his arrival. His career average is 6.0ppg. He was no better than, say, Kyle Korver, but playing with Jordan set the stage for him to etch his name into NBA folklore. Pippen was obviously a great player and the main reason they remained competitive without Jordan. But LeBron hasn't exactly been teamed with duds during his championship runs, so I don't think supporting casts can be used to elevate LBJ above MJ.
Don't get me wrong, there's a strong case for LBJ as GOAT. There's also a tendency to forget the greatness of predecessors when faced with contemporary greatness - there are probably many who say Salah is better than Suarez was for us in 13/14, which I wouldn't agree with at all. Jordan's Bulls career ended 20 years ago, so the mists of time are 5 times thicker. At the end of the day, it's down to the feeling you got watching both players.
