Who is American wrestling's Jordan? Who is LeBron?

[peanut]

Online, there is a constant debate over whether Jordan or LeBron are the basketball goats. And those two are the only serious contenders for the title.

Here, there seems to be some debate as to whether Smith or JB are the goat American wrestlers. And those two are the only serious contenders for the title. (Not to minimize all the other greats. It is really is a petty topic.)

So I started to wonder whether there is a correlation between Smith stans and MJ stans, and so on. Let's see what the poll says.

[AgaveMaria]

Wilt Chamberlain/Lew Alcinder-Karaeem Jabaar.

Wilt could do it all. One season he averaged 50 points per game.

Lew immediately raised the level of any team he was on.

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As for Wrestling I'll go with John Smith and 6 in a row and Dan Gable with total domination at his best.

[Bigbrog]

Jordan>Kobe>Labron

[juniorvarsity]

Jordan Burroughs = Lebron James - long term success 

John Smith = Michael Jordan - unbeatable streak

[alex1fly]

1 hour ago, juniorvarsity said:

Jordan Burroughs = Lebron James - long term success 

John Smith = Michael Jordan - unbeatable streak

This is about as spot-on as any other wrestling GOAT claim I've seen. My brain says "yes"

[peanut]

6 hours ago, juniorvarsity said:

Jordan Burroughs = Lebron James - long term success 

John Smith = Michael Jordan - unbeatable streak

The comparison is not perfect, but there are some similarities. 

MJ played when there were awful expansion teams, meaning less competition. Smith wrestled exclusively in an era of ten weight classes.

MJ played before Europeans were commonly in star roles. Smith competed before the post-Soviet era with a bunch of new countries and Russians leaving Russia. 

MJ played where skills and tactics were less evolved. So did Smith.

MJ has the advantage of being retired and properly assessed (rather than still active and dealing with fans whose interests are adverse to theirs). Ditto for Smith. 

At any rate, no matter how you slice it, MJ and Smith are legends. All respect.