I, in addition to all other NBA fans, am really enjoying the quality of play this year. The Lakers and Cavs are the two best teams in the league, with the two best players.  Dwayne Wade is a legit candidate for MVP, despite the lack of talent around him and the fact that he only has his team six games over .500.

I was watching ESPN, and they showed a stat that took a players total field goals and total assists and used that as a way to measure how much they contribute to the team. For example, Wade is tops, contributing 49.7 percent of his team's field goals this year.

All of this got me to thinking: Is it fair to compare this trio to Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan?  

The answer is probably not, at least not yet. However, I am going to compare them side by side nonetheless. What I want to do is actually look at LeBron as Magic, Wade as MJ, and Kobe as Bird.

  • The new group has four rings between them—the '80s and '90s boys produced 14.
  • The current trio has one MVP—the old trio had 11.
  • Kobe, Lebron, and Wade have made the All-NBA First Team eight times (going on 11 after this year)—Magic, Jordan, and Bird has 28.

How do they compare at the same age:

  • Bird (age 30)—37.1 percent of team’s FG         Kobe—37.2 percent
  • Magic (age 24) — 34.1 percent of team’s FG      LeBron—46.4 percent
  • Jordan (age 27) — 39.7 percent of team’s FG     Wade—49.7 percent

 

 

For the rest of the results, go to Lakers101.com.