LeBron James: LeBron Is No Michael Jordan, and He's Not Magic Either

There was a time not too long ago when some people speculated that Miami Heat forward LeBron James had a chance to be as good or better than Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan.

After two less than awe-inspiring postseason performances, which includes last season's NBA Finals, James' fans have shied away from the Jordan theory and have instead settled on Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson as a more suitable comparison.

Comparing James to Magic may be just as bad as comparing him to Jordan, maybe even worse.

For those of us privileged enough to have seen Magic play in his prime, one thing clearly stood out. Magic was fully vested in the business of making the players around him better, and all of the other parts of his game were a bonus.

Some analysts and fans look at James' ability to distribute the basketball combined with his size and naturally assume that his skill set most resembles Magic's, but while Johnson was born to be a floor general, garnering assists is just part of LeBron's game.

Johnson had the rare ability to turn decent players like Byron Scott into very good ones and very good players like James Worthy into Hall-of-Famers.

The Magic-LeBron comparisons began in earnest after James averaged a career-high 8.6 assists during the 2009-10 season, but James' best season in that category to date would actually rate as the third-worst assists average of Magic's career.

In fact, Magic's gaudy career 11.2 assists per game average was amplified by a stretch of nine straight seasons in double digits which helped certify him as the best point guard to ever play the game.

So does James really deserve the Magic comparison, considering he has yet to average double-digit assists in one season, while Magic made that standard a trademark of his game?

I'm sure that James fans will say the true comparison between James and Magic is found in their versatility, but as Colonel Sanders in Adam Sandler's Water Boy would say, "wrong again!"

To be fair, James is definitely one of the most versatile players in the game today, but he's still not Magic.

People like to say that James is the only player in the NBA capable of playing four positions, but Magic played all five, and he did it on a championship level, as a rookie.

Who will ever forget Magic manning the center position in place of an injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and responding with a 46-point, 15-rebound effort in the deciding Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals?

That ridiculous effort led to Magic being named the first rookie to ever earn the NBA Finals MVP Award which is an honor that still stands today.

Maybe LeBron could play center for the Miami Heat for a few short spans, but it's crazy to think he could ever come close to duplicating Magic's performance under the same postseason circumstances.

Speaking of postseason circumstances, it's really silly to compare LeBron to Magic or Michael considering they own 11 NBA titles between them, while James has yet to prove he can earn one.

One of the reasons Jordan and Magic are considered by some to be the top players the game has ever seen is because they both backed up their talent by winning championships.

Until James proves he can win at least one ring, it should be a sacrilege to even mention him in the same breath with a Jordan or a Magic.

However, for those of you unwilling to let go of the Magic-LeBron comparisons, James did average 5.9 assists last season, which is a number Magic can relate to. It's the same number of assists he averaged in his last 32 games as a pro.

James will never be as good as Jordan, and who would honestly say he can ever impact a game or playoff series like Magic?

Unfortunately, those two spots are taken. But how does the competition for best small forward of all time look?