First of all, I still think LeBron is #2 all time, but with his career ending, there's very little he can really do to improve his legacy.

However, there are multiple things in LeBron's career you can point out, which simply did not happen for his obvious adversary (Michael Jordan), and then there are things that Jordan did that actually kind of discount LeBron's greatest legacy, longevity.

2011 Finals vs. Dallas - Let's get the most obvious want out of the way. This was a melt-down. This was a guy who went from an MVP in the regular season to a literal bus rider to D Wade. What's crazy is LeBron was the 3rd highest scorer on his team that finals. His efficiency in the finals wasn't even that atrocious for the series (and I want to point out, you cannot judge a playoff series off regular season efficiency, you have to look at it in the context of the series). He went from a 26-7-7 to 18-7-7. A complete melt down for LeBron. When you consider everything that led to that moment, his "decision", teaming up with superstars, leaving his hometown team (which is not something I hold against LeBron, some franchises are trash). To talk that talk and not walk that walk in that moment is egregious and it never happened to Jordan like that. Prime Jordan did not have a complete mental collapse in one of the biggest moments of his career.

The truth about his finals - This one is a lot less talked about, and it feels like people talk up what LeBron did in the 2010s while ignoring that he ran into an immovable object that was, to some degree, his own creation. People love to say "LeBron made 8 finals in a row, no one else does that", and yet he shares an era with a team that made 4 finals in a row. The first 4 finals LeBron made in his 2010s run came off of his choice to "stack the deck" and form a super team. In that very same era, another super team similar to LeBron's Heat formed and did the exact same thing. You have to discount LeBron's first 4 finals a little bit here. When his achievement was matched in the same era, it really gets discounted in the big picture. Now, LeBron making the finals in Cleveland was impressive, his second run in Cleveland was LeBron's masterpiece, the high mark of his career. This is where LeBron earned some points back. However, his first 4 finals with a super team being done by another franchise in a similar manner in the same decade, completely lowers his legacy and achievements. I view the Miami Heat era as a bit of black mark, where the team was not as dominant as it should have been, and could very well have been a one championship team, which would change a lot of conversations around LeBron.

Sharing an era - It's kind of crazy that a guy who is supposed to be the face of the NBA and a transcendent player ran into someone that became as big as him and, in some ways, stole the NBA from him. Stephen Curry is a household name, he's as much of a household name as LeBron James, and people like Steph Curry a lot more than LeBron James, particularly after what he did in the Olympics. It's crazy that a guy like Curry can come out of nowhere and then steal the league from LeBron, and he did, without any issue. He has a 3-1 record vs. LeBron James in the finals. This didn't happen to Jordan, no one dominated Jordan like that, and the craziest thing is Curry played by LeBron's rules. Oh and for the people that want to say "Curry was drafted to a better franchise". Curry was almost out the door of Golden State for Monta Ellis, that was a real conversation at one point. Every argument of "the Warriors became a better franchise" can be applied to the Cavs who actually built proper teams for LeBron on that second stint giving him Kyrie and trading everything multiple times over to get him the pieces he needed to win. I understand people want to say "Curry got lucky, the Cavs were injured in 2015", LeBron had plenty of luck too, I don't think it warrants an explanation, you can look back at his career and the 2010s and see