LeBron James makes history, passes Michael Jordan in yet another milestone

Michael Jordan retired from the NBA as the undisputable greatest of all time and no NBA fans thought that anyone would even come close to him in the future. Little did we all know, one year after MJ retired a new all-time great would be joining the league to make the strongest case imaginable to be the greatest of all time. LeBron James had arrived.

There was a lot of hype around LeBron coming out of high school so his arrival was not a surprise. The surprise was that LeBron not only lived up to the extremely high expectations put on him but somehow managed to exceed them.

Fast forward two decades later and LeBron is still playing at the highest of levels, is defying everything we thought we knew about Father Time, and has etched himself as the only player in NBA history with 40,000 points.

Somehow, some way, LeBron did the impossible of not only entering the conversation with Jordan, but surpassing Jordan in the eyes of many (younger) basketball fans and analysts. Those who still call MJ the greatest of all time have to fend off accolade after accolade by LeBron, and on Sunday, LeBron surpassed Jordan with yet another remarkable feat.

LeBron James passes Michael Jordan for most 30-point games in NBA history

LeBron James is not even known for being a score-first player and he now has the most points in league history and the most 30-point games. That is a testament not just to his longevity, but his ability to take over games when he needs to.

Granted, LeBron has played far more games to get to this point than it took Jordan to get to his 671 30-point games. Jordan played just 1,072 games while LeBron has played 1,486 games (and counting). Jordan's 30-point games definitely came more frequently than LeBron.

But that is part of the conversation as well. Just because LeBron has played longer than Jordan doesn't automatically give Jordan the rub in these debates. In fact, LeBron doing this at a high level for as long as he has should be a focal part of the conversation.

There may not be a better winning basketball player than prime Michael Jordan, even the biggest LeBron James fans will admit that. But there also has not been a player who has had a greater career than LeBron James. All the numbers bear that out to be the truth.

And after all, the debate is centered around the greatest of all time, not the best winning player in their prime of all time. If we are solely talking about the greatest, the answer lies in the player who has the most 30-point games in NBA history.