Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James: Experts debate which icon had the bigger cultural impact

Michael Jordan never met a competition he didn't like. The man who once hit six straight shots at Chris Paul's summer camp, preventing a gym full of hopeful kids from receiving free shoes, was legendary for his refusal to lose at anything. 

LeBron James did his fair share of winning, too. The four-time NBA champion and all-time leader in points scored will always and forever be compared to Jordan on the court.

Debates will rage on forever about who was better on the court. But who wins when it comes to who's been better off it?

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Both athletes have succeeded wildly in the business world. Each is listed in Forbes' billionare rankings (Jordan's $3.5 billion handily eclipses LeBron's $1.3 billion). Much of that wealth has been built away from the hardwood. They were both influencers before the term even existed. They are intertwined into American culture perhaps more than any other athlete. 

Which one of the two all-time greats had the bigger cultural impact? We asked the experts to find out.

BENDER: The case for Michael Jordan as the NBA's GOAT

DECOURCY: The case for LeBron James as the NBA's GOAT

Michael Jordan and LeBron James cultural impact

Who was more influential in shoe culture? 

Jordan and LeBron are the two biggest faces of Nike. Per ESPN, Jordan has produced 39 signature shoes, while LeBron has 41 to his name. 

Jordan was the innovator. His Air Jordans completely changed the shoe industry.

Sonny Vaccaro, a long-time Nike shoe executive and author of the new book "Legends and Soles: The Memoir of an American Original," saw MJ's influence firsthand. Vaccaro convinced Nike co-founder Phil Knight to spend the company's entire marketing budget on Jordan back in 1984, giving him a then-unheard of five-year, $2.5 million shoe deal, plus a share of each pair sold. 

That bet paid off immediately. Jordan sold $131 million worth of shoes for Nike in his first year.

"That was the turning point in Nike," Vaccaro told Sporting News. "No one expected that."

MORE: Sonny Vaccaro's new book dishes on Michael Jordan, LeBron, Nike and his NCAA battles

Shoe companies started to see how valuable professional athletes could be to their bottom line after Jordan's success. 

"You can’t compare anything ever again to what Michael Jordan did," Vaccaro said. "If Michael Jordan doesn’t do the [Nike] deal, which was close to not getting done, the world changes. That gave him the opportunity to be the biggest influence in America in a shoe. Nobody would have ever thought of the unique things that we were able to do at Nike. So there’s no comparison to the two."

Thilo Kunkel is a sport and entertainment business professor for Temple who has studied Jordan's influence on the shoe industry. He thinks of it a bit differently. 

"Michael Jordan was obviously a trailblazer of that previous generation," Kunkel told Sporting News. "But if it wasn’t Jordan, I think there would have been someone else who would have paved the way."

Jordan may have started the athlete shoe movement. LeBron advanced it far beyond where it was in the 90's. King James' first Nike deal was valued at $90 million. He signed a lifetime deal with the company back in 2015, rumored to be at a billion dollars. He's more than just a spokesman for companies. He owns pieces of pro baseball, soccer and hockey teams. He sold part of his production business, the SpringHill Company, at a valuation of $725 million. 

"LeBron has taken the face of that athlete investor movement that we see more and more. Rather than just taking a specific cut of merchandising, LeBron has pushed heavily into investing in different ventures around his personal brand. He’s built his own agency around it. He’s really building around his name, image and likeness and taken it to another level," Kunkel said. 

Vaccaro voiced his opinion more strongly in an argument that won Jordan a point for this round. 

"The swoosh. The emblem. That never would have happened to another athlete in the world. The swoosh is the memory of Michael Jordan’s shoes today. It’s on everything. If Michael Jordan doesn’t sign, all these other unbelievable things don’t happen."

"Culturally and historically, there will never be another moment in the marketing world and in shoes like Michael Jordan, ever."

Who was the better public ambassador? 

Vaccaro argued ardently on behalf of Jordan as far as who was more influential in the world of marketing. But he had to admit LeBron is a better ambassador off the court. 

"[LeBron] is a greater ambassador because of what he did publicly," Vaccaro said. "What Michael or any of the others never really did was involve themselves in the community, in the world." 

Kunkel agreed with Vaccaro, pointing out that LeBron has never shied away from being politically active 

"LeBron has pushed heavily into taking a social stand where Jordan hasn’t done as much," said Kunkel. "There is the famous Jordan quote that Republicans buy sneakers, too. LeBron has taken a much more politically clear stand and spoken out clearly about some of the social issues he’s seen." 

That "Republicans buy sneakers, too" line came in response to a tight 1990 political race between incumbent conservative Republican Jesse Helms and Democrat challenger Harvey Gantt, who was attempting to be the state's first black elected to the Senate since Reconstruction. Jordan refused to publicly endorse Gantt. 

LeBron hasn't been afraid to have his voice heard, even if that loses him some fans and endorsement opportunities. He's publicly denounced Donald Trump. He's endorsed progressive politicians. When conservative talk show host Laura Ingram told him to "shut up and dribble," he refused. 

"I mean too much to society, too much to the youth, too much to so many kids who feel like they don't have a way out," LeBron responded.

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The "Republicans buy sneakers, too" line will always be connected with Jordan. He addressed it in "The Last Dance" documentary, stating that it was made "in jest." But he acknowledged that he hadn't done as much politically as he could have. 

"I do commend Muhammad Ali for standing up for what he believed in. But I never thought of myself as an activist. I thought of myself as a basketball player," Jordan said in the documentary. "I wasn't a politician when I was playing my sport. I was focused on my craft. Was that selfish? Probably. But that was my energy. That's where my energy was."

Jordan says he has done more work in the political sphere post-retirement. He and his Jordan brand gave $100 million towards promoting racial equality, social justice and greater access to education after the George Floyd murder. In 2017, he spoke out against an anti-trans bill in North Carolina that moved the All-Star game out of the state. He's given large donations to the International Association of Chiefs of Police's Institute for Community-Police Relations and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

In spite of those large contributions, LeBron has been far more outspoken in promoting the policies that he believes in. He gets the point here. 

Who is the bigger icon today? 

LeBron is certainly in the spotlight more than Jordan these days. He's still an All-NBA level player, on one of the prestige franchises in the league. Jordan has been retired for almost a quarter century and has mostly stayed out of the limelight. 

That has been a very intentional decision. LeBron has 159 million followers on Instagram and 53 million on X. Jordan has exactly zero. He has no desire to be on any of the major social platforms. He gave his reasoning why in an interview with Cigar Aficionado back in 2020. 

"Social media, Twitter, all those types of things have invaded the personality and personal times of individuals. People have been able to utilize it for financial gains and things of that nature. For someone like myself, I don't know if I could survive in this Twitter time where you don't have privacy that you would want."

Jordan has always tried to keep his social life off-limits. Vaccaro was close to him during the 90's and saw that firsthand. 

"I traveled with him to Europe. We did personal things, birthday parties, all of these things. It was private. Every time LeBron does or says something, LeBron had a wider universe to operate." 

Jordan is living out his retirement in the way he had planned. He discussed how he envisioned his post-playing days in a 1992 interview with Playboy Magazine. 

"Julius Erving is doing exactly what I want to do. Do you ever see or hear from Julius? But I know Julius is doing something he wants to do, and he’s kind of taken a step back from public life. That’s exactly what I want to do. When his time was up and he walked away from the game, he walked away proud, respected. Exactly what I want to do."

LeBron's attitude could not be more different. He tweets on X and posts on Instagram regularly. He shares updates on his family, his hobbies, and gives his fans a glimpse into all different parts of his life. 

MORE: Madden player recounts his day randomly facing LeBron in video game

That openness may water down LeBron's brand, according to some Jordan's backers like his son Marcus. 

"One of those things that adds to my dad's legacy is that mystery behind him. He's not easily accessible," Marcus told the Breakfast Club show back in 2020. Vaccaro echoed those sentiments. 

"Michael values his privacy. LeBron is open to the public. When you’re open to the public, I think you become too common. When you measure, it’s more of a thrill to the public."

"I think their personalities are extremely different," Vaccaro added. "Michael is much more private than LeBron, even today. Michael is an entity into himself. LeBron is an entity to the world."

Jordan's stance on social media reflects his ideology about the debate. He killed everyone who he played against, but has shied away from the comparisons to the stars that came before him and after him. He'd probably want to sit this one out too. But in the one contest that the greatest competitor ever doesn't care about winning, he still comes out on top. 

Jordan may not have been the advocate that LeBron was, or used social media to heighten his brand. He didn't have to. He is still instantly one of the most recognizable athletes in the world. Any time he speaks in public, the world listens. And he's held onto that fame for longer than LeBron has been alive. 

"Michael has maintained 50 years of consciousness to an American public that never saw him play basketball," Vaccaro said. "How about that?"