By MYLES VALENTINE

For every professional basketball connoisseur out there in the sports world, there’s always going to be the dreadful question.

Who is the best ever?

I believe the real question here is, who would you rather have on your team? LeBron James or Michael Jordan?

First off there is no right or statistically correct answer to this question. When it comes to Jordan-James statistics, they duel back and forth, like Tom and Jerry. Jordan scores more. James rebounds and passes better. They shoot about the same, block shots about the same and are both fantastic defenders.

I know I said there’s no statistically correct answer, we must keep in mind that LeBron James just passed Jordan as NBA all-time playoff scorer. During the just-ended Eastern Conference finals, it was a three-point shot that gave James 29 points for the game and 5,989 points for his postseason career. That total continued to rise all the way to 5,995 points. Jordan’s mark of 5,987 points stood for 19 years. James is now in the NBA championship game for the seventh consecutive year.

Yes, Jordan needed fewer games than James (179 to 212). But James also reached his point total with fewer field goal attempts (yet more free throw attempts) than Jordan.

Michael Jordan still leads James in several significant categories, including championship rings (six to three), MVP awards (five to four) and regular-season scoring titles (10 to one).

It should be fair to say that Michael Jordan and LeBron James are the two greatest players. They both dominate the game but they both did it in very different ways. I think it comes down to this Michael Jordan was great for his time. But LeBron James is the new and best thing since the iPhone.