Michael Jordan
Magic Johnson
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Michael Jordan leads 4 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Michael Jordan at #1 and Magic Johnson at #5.
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The case for Michael Jordan
The most complete resume at the highest peak. Jordan won six championships in six Finals appearances, took Finals MVP all six times, and never allowed a series to reach a Game 7. He won five regular-season MVPs, ten scoring titles — both records for a perimeter player — and retired with the highest career scoring average in NBA history at 30.1 points per game. The two-way case seals it: 1988 Defensive Player of the Year, nine All-Defensive First Team selections, and 2,514 career steals, third all-time. His 1990–91 through 1992–93 and 1995–96 through 1997–98 three-peats bracket a 6–0 decade in which his teams beat Hall of Fame opposition — Magic's Lakers, Barkley's Suns, Malone and Stockton's Jazz twice — and his 33.4 points per game across 179 playoff games remains the highest postseason average ever. The 72–10 season of 1995–96 and the 1998 title-winning shot in Utah are the era's defining monuments. No player has combined scoring supremacy, defensive excellence and flawless Finals results at his level.
The case for Magic Johnson
The greatest playmaker ever and the most instantly impactful rookie in league history. Johnson's career assist average of 11.2 per game remains the all-time record, and he attached it to five championships, three MVPs and three Finals MVPs in a 12-year prime shortened by his 1991 HIV announcement. The signature performance came first: in Game 6 of the 1980 Finals, the 20-year-old rookie started at center for the injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and produced 42 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists to close out Philadelphia — still the most famous positional improvisation in Finals history. At 6-foot-9 he redefined what a point guard could be, running Showtime fast breaks that made the 1980s Lakers the league's glamour franchise and its best offense; nine Finals appearances in 12 seasons is a Russell-era number achieved in the modern league. He won his three MVPs from 1987 to 1990 while sharing the floor with Kareem and James Worthy, and his 1979 NCAA title over Larry Bird's Indiana State — the most-watched college game ever — launched the rivalry that saved the NBA.