I am a student of 1990’s basketball. Watched MJ dominate. Saw a couple dozen of the greatest players ever make their marks on the NBA. The sweaty-ness of Patrick Ewing. I like to think I was around for the conception of at least 15 of Shawn Kemps kids.

And since the time of Jordan, there has not even remotely been an individual that compared to his sheer dominance of the game. Not a soul. No, not Kobe.

It was unreal to watch him play. On both sides of the ball. He could elevate his game at the drop of a hat, and elevate the rest of his team too. Seriously, a dynasty during the Hakeem, Shaq, Ewing eras with Luke Longley and Bill Wellington? Yup.

And since his retirement, basketball has been an empty void. A league of “almost’s” and “Jordan-esque” players, but for every game winner or posterizing, there was always an MJ hi-light that stood out and overshadowed what I had just seen.

But now LBJ comes along.

And I am still skeptical.

But beyond all the hoopla and hi-light reel stuff, commercials and what not that keeps crowning him as even better, there has been only one event in his career that has made me raise an interested eyebrow at what this kid could accomplish. And that this years MVP.

Not since MJ has there been such a definitive MVP choice. I mean, there have been clear MVP’s (even Lebron!), but none so blatently dominant as Lebron this season.

Now I’m not the first to say this, and I’m not just regurgitating public opinion for the sake of reading myself, the reason that this really tweaks me is that this is the first MVP to make me think that this dude might be better than MJ. One day.

Jordan DID dominate scoring in an era when teams had bounty’s on players, and giving up a layup cost you dinner for your teammates, and they allowed hand checking…okay, I could go on. But what really separates Lebron this season is how Jordan-like his attitude has become. I mean Kobe has had a take no prisoners attitude for years, but he’s just kind of a dick, and theres a big difference in just being an ass and then actually being a possessed super demon.

I see the demon in Lebron.

When he’s facing good opposition he’s not going all Kobe and “Pfffffffft, who’s that guy?” -ing his way through the media. Lebron is getting steely. Scary calm.

That way that your mom would get after she was waaay past jut being ticked off at you. Way past yelling. When you got the calm and collected: “Go to your room…now.”

When you knew you were effed. When you’d pushed it far beyond where you were safe. This is where Lebron is heading.

MJ wasn’t ALL bravado, he just knew he wasn’t just a better player than you, but he was smarter. Diabolically more smarter.

He still has a long way to go, but for the first time since the Bulls dynasty, we have a player that is starting to feel a bit more like the cold blooded assassin that terrorized the NBA in the 90’s. The only difference…Lebron’s still too damn nice.