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LeBron still has the time and talent to catch MJ

LeBron James is the greatest basketball player ever.

No, no, no.

I’m not ready to proclaim the Heat’s self-proclaimed King as heir to the throne.

Been there, blew that.

While Michael Jordan was playing for the Bulls, I knew nobody ever would be better. Then I wrote that James was. Then I admitted I was wrong. Then I wrote that some day he might be. Then I acknowledged that the situation is fluid.

Now … Jordan vs. James … game on!

James has his NBA title now. As he said, it was about time after nine years in the league.

James still is a daunting five short of Jordan’s six championships with the Bulls. But MJ was a year older than LBJ when he won his first title.

More than James’ championship, however, was the way he was everything he was supposed to be, which was everything to everybody.

This subject is sensitive around here. My goodness, how could anyone suggest that a mere human being could even approach Jordan’s supernatural being?

Look, the comparison is a compliment acknowledging that Jordan still is the standard of greatness.

That’s sports. Tiger is compared to Jack, Elway to Unitas, Pujols to Gehrig … uh, OK, nobody to Gretzky.

Never underestimate Jordan, but 14 years after he won his last title he’s going to get better only in convenient memory. James still has a chance to get better on the court.

James is a heavy underdog in this competition. However, it might not be smart to underestimate him either.

The attribute that set Jordan apart from the field is he liked showing off and tried to every night. He epitomized Joe DiMaggio saying he always played his best because someone might be watching him for the first time.

Contrast that with James’ first NBA game in Chicago nine seasons ago, when he appeared disinterested. I recall writing essentially that if you want to be like Mike you can’t take a night off.

The primary criticism of James has been that he especially wasn’t consistently great in the final minutes of close games.

At least for one month — the past month — James quelled that doubt.

The difference between Jordan and James to this point could be the different paths they took toward professional basketball.

Jordan played in college under Dean Smith at North Carolina, which is like learning from Stan Lee how to create comic-book super heroes.

James went directly from high school to the NBA. He didn’t have a Coach Smith prepare him on and off the court.

From the start with the Cavaliers and even last season with the Heat, James still was learning how to be a professional athlete.

While the Bulls provided Jordan with the infrastructure — coaching, teammates, triangle offense — the Cavs provided James with little more than a platform during his first seven NBA seasons.

This month James finally looked like he got it, got on his own what Jordan learned from Smith, Doug Collins, Phil Jackson, Tex Winter and Johnny Bach.

Now James’ challenge is to sustain success by improving the way Jordan did throughout his career.

Even then, championships will decide this competition, so the question is whether the Heat will surround James with the necessities that the Bulls surrounded Jordan with.

Let the competition resume, the debate rage and me change my mind a few more times over the next decade.

mimrem@dailyherald.com

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