Every year about this time, we, the basketball diehards, find ourselves having this same stupid argument/debate/wrestling match about who’s the GOAT; Jordan or LeBron? Now that the NBA season is finally over with the Los Angeles Lakers led by LeBron are the reigning NBA champs. The fire is burning once again on this debate.
Now that the foolishness has been thrown on the table the debate is in full throttle again over who’s really the GOAT? Jordan or LeBron? Now I’m cool with a boy telling me that Jordan is the GOAT because of his overall global influence on the game. The way he revolutionized the sports marketing game with the Air Jordan shoe, the baggy shorts and black socks etc.
However, if we’re telling the truth it was the Fab Five at Michigan in 1991 that rocked the baggy shorts and black socks first. I’m just saying. Boyz wanna give Mike credit for something that he really didn’t do but we can let it slide for the sake of time.
Mike’s influence on the game and basketball cutlure makes him the GOAT. It doesn’t however, make him the greatest all-around basketball player we’ve ever seen though. Mike is the greatest in-game scorer the game has ever seen averaging 31.12 points per game. However, there are other aspects of the game that he wasn’t the best at. He never led his teams in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals. He isn’t 3rd All-Time in scoring, 8th All-Time in assists, 13th All-Time in steals and 48th all-time in rebounds. Those are LeBron’s numbers. There’s not another player in the history of the game that’s top 5 in scoring and top 10 in assists! Not a one!!! That’s called playing the COMPLETE game.
What blows my mind are the amount of cats on TV that played the game that will sit on a show like Shaq has and say that Mike was 6-0 in the Finals and LeBron is 4-6 like that makes sense. Mike being 6-0 has absolutely nothing to do with who the better player is. Winning titles is a TEAM award not an individual accolade.
All that means is that Mike was on the best team 6 times. The Bulls were the best team in the NBA those 6 seasons. They had the best player (Mike), the best two-way player (Scottie Pippen), the best three-point shooter from a percentage standpoint in the history of the league (Steve Kerr). Then they ran out and got the best rebounder in the league in Dennis Rodman. They had the best coach in the league too. Oh yeah, they had the best international player in the world in Toni Kukoc coming off of the bench. Stop telling me that 6-0 makes Mike the best player of all-time because that makes no sense. And for point of reference Scottie won the same 6.
Using that logic you’re telling me that Bill Russell was darn near twice as good as Mike was because he won 11 championships. He went 8-0 in the Finals from 1959-66. That doesn’t make him better than Mike. It means that he was on the best team 11 times.
Do you realize that there are 12 players in the history of the league with 6 or more titles? There are 8 players with more rings than Jordan. They are Russell (11), Sam Jones (10), John Havlicek and Tom “Satch” Sanders (8) and Robert Horry and James Loscutoff each have 7. Does that make them better than Jordan? And what about the other three (Pippen, Kareem and Bob Cousey) that have the same 6 Mike has?
Tell me Jordan is the GOAT for the reasons that I gave earlier or tell me that he was a 10-time scoring champ or that he was a 10-time All-NBA selection or a 9-time first-team All-Defensive selection etc. However, those still don’t make him the best player we’ve ever seen because there are more aspects to the game than just scoring. You can not be the best all-around player we’ve ever seen if you aren’t assisting, rebounding, scoring and playing defense at a higher level than everyone else we’ve ever seen.
Oh and by the way, LeBron is a 13-time first team All-NBA selection and 5-time All Defensive selection along with all of the other accolades that I’ve mentioned. Did I mention that Jordan never guarded the best player on the opposing team. That was Pippen’s job. Oh and did I mention that LeBron has played all five positions and guarded all five every night for 17 years? We never saw Mike do that. And don’t tell me that he could have because if he could have he would have.
I’m watching a cat whose still playing that’s Top 10 in both scoring and assists and Top 15 in steals that took three garbage teams at the time to the Finals and won a total of four titles. Mike never faced teams with four Hall of Famers on them in multiple runs. Stop it!! Mike was on Golden State before Golden State. The Bulls were the BEST team in the league by the time they started getting to the Finals in 1991. Mike never beat the Celtics with Bird, Parrish and McHale. Boyz want to act like Mike didn’t play from 1984-90 like he didn’t go 1-9 in the playoffs before Pippen got to town. What was Mike doing when he was on bad teams? Gunnin’ and losing!!! He never had a .500 record until Pippen showed up but you want me to believe he’s the best we’ve EVER seen?
He finally beat Magic once he got sick. It was only weeks after the Lakers loss in the Finals to the Bulls that he announced that he was HIV positive. So miss me with the whole Mike got over the hump foolishness. The Pistons and the Celtics got old and Magic retired because of his health. Mike was left with the best team standing and he did what he was supposed to do with it. Win.
LeBron on the other hand, resurrected Dwyane Wade’s career when he took his talents to South Beach. D. Wade’s knees were shot. Don’t act like the Heat was a contender when James got there. They were a 47 win team that got drilled in the first round of the playoffs by Boston before LeBron landed in South Beach.
He also won a title in Cleveland, of all places, with Matthew Dellavedova, JR Smith and Iman Shumpert. First of all, Dellavedova can run up on you, steal your bike right now and you wouldn’t know who he was. The Knicks traded both JR and Iman to the Cavs in December of 2015 for a second round pick in 2019. They essentially gave them away and he won a title with them.
Then he went to LA and ressurrected the Lakers out of the garbage. They hadn’t made the Finals since Kobe led them in 2010. Sure, he had Anthony Davis but the rest of the roster was a gang of misfits that NOBODY wanted. He literally resurrected Dwight Howard from the grave. Duns like Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were flying under the radar and the casual fan didn’t even know existed and Avery Bradley didn’t even come to the bubble. According to Frank Vogel they put the roster together over night and you’re trying to tell me Mike is the greatest basketball player we’ve even seen? You’ve got to be kidding me!
Mike didn’t face a gang of Hall of Famers in the Finals like Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and you can add Jimmy Butler to the mix now in the Finals. Stop it! Mike may be the GOAT because of his influence but LeBron is the best all-around basketball player we’ve ever seen.
Muhammad Ali was revered as the GOAT because of his influence but we all have seen better boxers than Ali. There are probably 4 or 5 boxers that were pound for pound better than he was. Ali just made the most impact with his career so therefore, he’s known as the GOAT. That’s Mike. Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific