[hendrix2430]

Please, don't even compare the two, what's the point?....James is 22 and has played just NBA 4 seasons.

I'll say this though: A talent like LBJ is not even a "once in a decade" type of player...it's more than that. He's that good.

[#1]

3rd option for me.

[Undefeated82]

This is ridiculous, although Lebron's play this season is higher then his previous seasons(I'll give him his repect) we are talking about Magic Mothaf***en Johnson! Not only was Magic a better passer, he was a better shooter, more efficient (FG%, FT%, TSP% except 3PT% but Magic rarely took them, 200 for his career) better rebounder, and his defense has been overshadowed (underrated) by his offense. Nearly averaged a triple double for his career at 19.5p 11.2a 7.2reb 52%fg 84%ft .61%ts. A champion and a leader, I'll take Magic, arguably better then Jordan along with Wilt. This thread should get thrown into the shredder!

[TakaraJinRoh]

Lets wait till the season end before we start proclaiming James better (because of his higher PER than MJ and Wilt) James is an extraordinary talent, definitely same in the breed of Jordan,Robertson,Wilt and Shaq but come on, lets be real here for a minute. This is Magic Johnson we're talking about.

[Diable]

Point guards never have PER's as high as wig players.Highest PER ever by a point guard is Oscar's top season of 27.64 in 63-4 and after that Magic's best season at 27.03(excluding Chris Paul this season which isn't complete).Oscar's best season is the 50th highest PER by season and Magic's the 65th highest.

The metric simply always favors wings and big men because they shoot higher percentages and shouldn't turn over the ball so much because they don't have the responsibility for taking care of the ball.Magic's PER was lower because he turned the ball over an awful lot.When you compare players at other positions or the same position PER has much more validity than it does when comparing other players to point guards.It's really much better to use it to compare players in similar roles.

[rainman]

There's a Kobe is better than Jordan thread hiding in here somewhere.

[futuristxen]

Originally Posted by Diable

Point guards never have PER's as high as wig players.Highest PER ever by a point guard is Oscar's top season of 27.64 in 63-4 and after that Magic's best season at 27.03(excluding Chris Paul this season which isn't complete).Oscar's best season is the 50th highest PER by season and Magic's the 65th highest.

The metric simply always favors wings and big men because they shoot higher percentages and shouldn't turn over the ball so much because they don't have the responsibility for taking care of the ball.Magic's PER was lower because he turned the ball over an awful lot.When you compare players at other positions or the same position PER has much more validity than it does when comparing other players to point guards.It's really much better to use it to compare players in similar roles.

Isn't Lebron a point guard though in the Oscar Robertson sense? I agree he's not a pure point like Magic, but he is responsible for creating all of his teams offense, so there is overlap there. Plus Lebron's nubers even before this year routinely put him in the same categories as Bird, Oscar, and Jordan. Obviously he's gonna need titles to conclusively win any arguements against any of these players. But I don't think people can really act like he's not there with those guys anymore.

Was it Larry Bird who said if he's not being talked about as one of the best ever by his fifth year then something has gone wrong. It looks like Lebron is on track for that.

[All Net]

Even if his PER is higher, I really dont care. Magic was at a whole different level in the passing and court vision categorys... this thread is stupid.

[joser]

Magic is known as "Magic" for a reason.