Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, February 25, 2005, Washington Post

My Bad. LeBron Is Really Good.

Two years ago, some smart-aleck sportswriter wrote this about LeBron James: "Maybe someday LeBron will be the next Michael Jordan. Maybe someday he will score 30 points per game, be an NBA all-star and win championships with last-second shots. But maybe it's not fair to expect that day to be any time soon."

Who was that sportswriter? Me.

Boy, was I wrong. In just his second season in the National Basketball Association, LeBron is on his way to becoming as good as, maybe even better than, Michael Jordan.

You don't believe anyone could be as good as Michael Jordan? Check out these numbers (below, right) from Michael and LeBron's earliest seasons in the NBA. I looked up their statistics for points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game and field goal percentage (the number of shots made in every 100 attempts).

Okay, Michael had a better first year. He scored more as a rookie and shot a whole lot better. But remember, Michael was 22 in his first NBA season. LeBron came right out of high school, so he was just 19 during most of his rookie season. Three years is a big difference. That's like a fourth-grader playing on a middle school team.

Now, let's look at their follow-up seasons (Michael's third, because he got hurt early in his second season; and LeBron's current season, in which he's played in 50 games so far).

In this comparison, Michael scores more, but LeBron is as good or better in the other categories. And LeBron is only 20 years old. When Michael was that age he was a sophomore at the University of North Carolina. LeBron is carrying his team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, to a winning record (31 wins, 21 losses so far) and a place in the playoffs.

So is LeBron going to be better than the great Michael Jordan? I don't know. But LeBron is definitely one of the best players in the NBA.

Even a smart-aleck sportswriter like me knows that.