The best player in the world authored another one of those games. One of those displays of Sizzlers speed dribbling, strength on the ball, striking finishing ability that reminded opponents, the world TV and YouTube audience of the simple fact: On his game, he cannot be stopped.

And LeBron James had a sunny Sunday, too.

Oh, you thought the above concerned the Heat’s point guard-shooting guard-small forward-power forward, who rolled up 25 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as the Heat whipped Orlando 90-78? Nah, I meant FC Barcelona marvel Lionel Messi, scorer of four goals against Valencia around the time Sunday that Dwyane Wade started pouring in points and James started tossing around assists.

The twin masterful performances made me wonder: Who is the best team sport athlete in the world right now? The best player in the world’s most popular team sport, Messi, or the acknowledged best player in the world’s second most popular team sport, LeBron?

“Messi’s … Messi’s something special,” Heat forward Shane Battier said when I posed the question to him after Sunday’s game. “Man, both of them are doing it on the main spotlight. It’s hard to compare. Soccer’s a little different. You get someone threading you with some pretty deft passes. LeBron has the ball in his hand a little more, so he controls his destiny a little more. So in some regards, that’s more amazing, but in some regards, it’s more amazing what Messi does. It depends how you look at it.”

If you start to discuss a question as fun as it is ridiculous, you find enough parallels that the 6-8 bearded black man and the 5-7 stringy-haired Argentine could star in a remake of the Ah-nold/Danny DeVito flick, Twins.

Each isn’t just the consensus best player in his sport, but leads a star-studded club team. In the midst of Linsanity, James and Wade remind the NBA nearly nightly that the two best players on the planet wear Heat colors and every time you want to move Chris Bosh down the top-20 list, he’ll hit you with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Each might be known as the best in his sport by the time his career finishes. Though he’s not as brilliant a passer as Magic Johnson or Larry Bird were, the superior sharpshooter Bird was or the shutdown defender Michael Jordan was, James does all of those things quite well. The completeness of his game compares favorably with each. In 24:30, most of it on James’ watch, Orlando forward Hedu Turkoglu got a free throw and that was with James also helping on Orlando center Dwight Howard.

“[Udonis Haslem] and LeBron showed the versatility of their defense, that they truly can guard multiple guys,” Heat coach Erik Spolestra said. “You can’t guard a player that great with one.”

That James likely won’t win as many championships as Bill Russell, Magic or Jordan is irrelevant to an individual comparison. Championships are team triumphs. James might never win a title without Wade. Michael Jordan never won one without Scottie Pippen, Magic didn’t get one without Kareem. Heck, Joe Montana doesn’t have a single Super Bowl ring that Ronnie Lott doesn’t have, too.

Messi already gets put on the podium with Argentine predecessor Diego Maradona and Brazilian deity Pelé, albeit in third place. But Messi produces at a ridiculous rate in an era when scouting, defensive systems and over-coaching hamper offensive expression more than it did in Maradona or Pelé’s day.

Each gets castigated for not winning the title most valued by his countrymen. Along with the germination of the Big 3 idea, James, Wade and Bosh teamed with several other NBA stars to recapture the Olympic gold medal Americans believe our birthright. Yet the closest James came to an NBA title before last year’s Heat run was carrying an above-average Cleveland team into the 2007 NBA Finals.

For Messi, it’s the reverse. His club team won the UEFA Champions League title in 2009 and 2011, the former part of the only case of a club team winning all six domestic and international titles for which it played (sort of soccer’s equivalent of 17-0.). But Argentina’s national team failures, most notably getting blown out of the 2010 World Cup by Germany as Messi went goalless for the tournament, gets laid at Messi’s dazzling feet. Pelé points to the Brazilian World Cup titles he led when Messi’s compared with him.

That’s why Messi gets booed by his countrymen during national team matches in his native land just as LeBron gets booed by his fellow Ohioans when the Heat goes to Cleveland.

Settle it with this: Give James the Over 6-2 Division and Messi the Under 6-2 Division.