MJ wasn't good enough to take his team to the Finals.
LeBron might lose in the Finals, but he has the ability to take scrub teammates there. MJ didn't.
MJ was 1 - 9 before Scottie Pippen showed up. Go look at LeBron's playoff record before he played with a talent like Pippen.
Even more impressive is that LeBron did it coming out of high school. Jordan needed 3 years of seasoning in college.
It's not even a debate really.
Jordan lost one series to the Bucks his rookie season, then got swept by the Celtics twice. You know, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parrish, Dennis Johnson, those guys? One of those Celts teams won the NBA title and is one of the all-time great teams, and the other was derailed by injuries and still pushed the gott-damned Lakers to six. He then got knocked out of the playoffs three straight years by the Bad Boys of Detroit, who lost the Finals in 7 the first year and won the title the other two. Laimbeer, Thomas, Dumars, Salley, Mahorn, Rodman... those guys were pretty damn good too - not an all-time team like that Celtics squad or on par with the Showtime Lakers overall, but a damn fine team. He then won three straight, retired, came back and after playing less than half a season. lost to Shaq et al in a season, and then won three in a row.
LBJ built a gott-damned super team. He was in his prime. He lost the finals to Dirk freaking Nowitzki, and it wasn't like he was dragging along Bosh and Wade - Bosh hit one of the game winners and Wade outplayed LBJ in the series. All I know is I remember the Pacers team that pushed the Bulls to 7 when Jordan was back and the one that pushed LBJ's Heat to 7 last season, and MJ would have pasted those Pacers in five max. LBJ has benefitted from an Eastern Conference that is too soft to be used as toilet paper, and of course he made the Finals every f***ing year because MJ, Bird, Magic, Dr. J, Wilt or Russell in their prime with LeBron's team would have done the same thing. Not a damn one of them would have lost to Dirk in the Finals, though.