[McMenamin] With 43 points tonight, LeBron James became the first player in league history to score 40 or more points against all 30 NBA teams.

Ok, I'm going to assume you're not trolling here and approach this in good faith, because I don't think this is a debate at all really.

Let's count up top tier players that Lebron had:

  1. Dwayne Wade
  2. Kyrie Irving
  3. Ray Allen
  4. Kevin Love
  5. Chris Bosh
  6. Anthony Davis

These were guys in their prime crushing it. Then you can go to role players that anyone would love to have like Korver, J.R. Smith, Ilgauskas, and then finally washed all-stars like Howard, Rondo, Jefferson, Wallace.

Jordan had

  1. Pippen
  2. Rodman

Then it falls off to role players like Armstrong, Kukoc, Harper, Grant. That's a massive difference in quality. The Bulls won because Jordan was so far ahead of the comp he could 1v5. He was dragging scrubs to the playoffs and taking games off of the prime Celtics when the Bulls had no business winning those games at all.

I can give you the coach argument because Jackson is a better coach than anything Lebron had. Keep in mind many people criticize Phil Jackson for not accomplishing anything without generational talent. I don't agree with this but some say it's easy to win with Jordan/Pippen, Kobe/Shaq. Many don't have him as the goat coach despite the rings.

But we're not even talking about coaches, generations, or anything else. I'm simply factoring in teammates. I say Lebron has the edge.

BUT WITH ALL THAT SAID It's not a clear-cut decision on who the GOAT is because Lebron has had longevity, is a better facilitator, is a better teammate, etc. I think there are good arguments for both but I'm trying to stress that the quality of teammates is not the deciding factor.

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