The best ever. For now.

Now the jabber begins again, as we watch LeBron James once more humiliate the thoroughly cowed Raptors. As we watch him kiss another game-winner high off the glass over a frantic defender. As we watch him do things on a basketball floor we've hardly ever seen anyone do, and maybe never, unless we're willing to come down with a raging case of nostalgia disease.

Altogether now: Not even MICHAEL JORDAN did that ...

Also altogether now, from the nostalgia-plagued Cult of MJ: Don't even go there with me ...

Well. Guess what, boys and girls?

The Blob is going to go there.

The Blob is going to say LeBron James is doing things his admittedly faulty memory cannot recall ever seeing before, like carry a team the way Jordan never had to against (in the NBA Finals, anyway) more formidable opposition. Like doing so without the benefit of trotting out there every night flanked by two other Hall of Famers (as MJ did in his six-title run.)

So, yeah. The Blob is now ready with his verdict, which is a bit more nuanced than people usually like to hear.

MJ is the greatest pure scorer I've ever seen.

LeBron, a better passer and rebounder doing as much with less,  is the greatest player.

For now.

For now, because there are always qualifiers in these arguments, and the qualifier in this one is you cannot fairly compare eras when it comes to judging over-arching greatness. It's just not possible.

And so Michael Jordan was the greatest player who'd ever come down the pike back in the ugly 1990s, when officials swallowed their whistles and defenders were allowed to manhandle superstars with impunity. And LeBron is the greatest player who's ever come down the pike now, when games are called far tighter but there is more overall athleticism in the League and more generational teams (the Tim Duncan Spurs, the current Warriors) than there were in Jordan's day.

And sometime in the future?

There will be another Greatest Ever in another Different Era. People will say Not even LeBron did that. Other people will say Don't even go there with me.

That's how it works, you see.

Ain't it grand?