MrBeast reportedly planning Michael Jordan vs LeBron James to settle GOAT debate

YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson wants to set up a one-on-one game between basketball greats, Michael Jordan and LeBron James, to settle once and for all who is the greatest player of all time (GOAT). Donaldson opened up about the one-on-one as a viral video idea during a live stream with Adin Ross, and said that it was inspired by one of his older videos where he pitted soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo against a fan.

Sharing his idea for the ultimate basketball showdown on Ross’ live stream recently, Donaldson said,

“So I was just randomly thinking, and the other day I was like, imagine if we got LeBron [James] and Michael Jordan to 1v1 but we, like, handicap LeBron in some way. They would never do it, but like, imagine if we could get that to happen, you know how f***ing that would be.”

MrBeast and Adin Ross discuss bringing Michael Jordan and LeBron James together for a game

MrBeast’s viral suggestion that Michael Jordan and LeBron James face off against each other echoes NBA fans’ dream to see the former Chicago Bulls champion compete with the current Los Angeles Lakers legend. While Jordan is a six-time NBA champion and a six-time Finals MVP, the four-time champion James trails him.

Adin Ross, who had just displayed his signed LeBron jersey during the live stream, wholeheartedly supported Donaldson’s idea, and while encouraging him noted that Donaldson could be the only person to pull something like this off. Ross said,

“Bro, Jimmy, if anyone does it, it’s you and if you do that, bro, it would be the craziest video ever, like ever!”

MrBeast tells Adin Ross he wants to make a LeBron James vs Michael Jordan 1v1 video but LeBron has to be handicapped in some way 👀 pic.twitter.com/EiQHn9IJu3

— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) August 2, 2025

At the same time, Ross cited the difficulties that might be involved in convincing James and Jordan to play against each other. He observed,

“I just don’t think it’ll, wait, wait, I have a question. Would you, because, I feel like LeBron is doable but Michael Jordan, I heard he’s such a like a hard, [in]accessible person to get in touch with.”

MrBeast seemed to agree, and noted,

“Yeah, probably so. I doubt it’ll happen.”

All the same, Donaldson was still hopeful. He cited a recent video in which he spent time inside the Giza Pyramids in Egypt to talk about how impossible ideas sometime come to fruition, and said,

“But that’s the thing, is like a lot of these videos, like, I thought getting the pyramids for a $100, we got all three of the Great Pyramids of Egypt for a video where we just like explored them. I thought that was impossible, its one of the seven wonders of the world. But we ended up making it happen.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by MrBeast (@mrbeast)

Donaldson also became candid about his approach to selection ideas for videos, and added,

“So its, you kind of have to have like, here’s theoretically 20 impossible ideas that are, have like one in a million chance but if you work on all of them, somehow you will figure out how to do one of them, and so that has kind of been our strategy, if that makes sense.”

Going by MrBeast’s modus operandi, it seems like a Michael Jordan versus LeBron James face-off is not entirely impossible, and fans may just get to see the two greats in competition with each other.