There's no comparison for a number of reasons. Totally different league at the time. The players weren't getting ridiculous salaries until Jordan was nearly out the door and there are a lot more cry babies today in the league than days of old. The next closest as for fully respectable figure would have been Kobe. After Lebron left Cleveland that said a lot about him as both a person and a competitor.
Also worth mentioning the style - Without taking into account statistics, watching MJ play is pure joy. I'm not going to say Lebron isn't a great player, but I enjoy watching a different kind of ball... I'm more of a Stephen Curry fan truth to be told.
No doubt on style Lebron is brute force. That's a lot of weight and muscle steamrolling people over...lol. Steph Curry is definitely a great player. His dad was alright too.
That is one of the things that I can't avoid comparing when watching NBA matches nowadays... Many of the 'great players' these days are forged at the gym.
That doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching some big ass dude plunging onto the hoop eating 3 people away for breakfast haha
For people like Lebron and others that are coming out stronger its smarter though. A lot of the players that had so much potential lacked muscularity and they had to bow out early to end what could have been greatness. For example, Penny Anderson, Kevin Johnson, Larry Bird, Jason Kidd, Grant Hill and tons of others. They lacked muscle and they suffered from it a good deal. So it is a good and bad thing.
They were also old when that happened haha and in basketball it's about balance and teammanship.
I like to think it comes with waves. Look at Curry, he lead the wins and knew how to get around Lebron with ease and made great use of his team to deliver the wins.
Then again, I'm a big fan of playmakers so probably the reason why I feel this way (Jason Kidd and Steve Nash were my heroes when I was younger haha)
Not all of those guys were old. Penny got messed up pretty young and with Grant Hill his health declined pretty fast. Jason Kidd was always the man but the injuries kept him out of the hall of fame.