A looming debate that separates the basketball community...who really is the best?
By: Bartu 11.2
An image of a basketball and some drinks, taken at the Early Years basketball court.
It’s constantly in the air like some sort of airborne disease, it's under the fridge where you kick the ice cubes, and it's at any public place you visit. It seems like since the dawn of the NBA we still can't decide on who the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) is, Michael Jordan or LeBron James.
The NBA has had lots of significant historic players over the years, whether that’s Larry Bird revolutionizing playmaking or Shaq dominating the paint it ultimately boils down to two people. Two people cemented into basketball greatness, two that are what even hall of famers couldn’t be, Jordan and LeBron. Cleveland, a city that has experienced multiple defeats over the past years, under the watch of head coach Paul Silas they couldn’t get anywhere as they lacked any sort of initiative, a few bad draft picks and a couple questionable trades it seemed that they needed a miracle to get them from the bottom of the standings to the top. 2003 Cleveland has the first pick and who do they select, a 6’9 small forward straight out of saint Vincent Saint Mary high school named LeBron James. The next season things improved significantly, and it was clear that they had the guy, they struck gold. Now, greatness can’t be explained in 500 words but accolades and achievements can. 25 points per game career average, four-time Champion, four-time league MVP, four-time finals MVP, 17 time all-star, 13 time all NBA first team this man can do it all. These are some insane stats, but not unheard of; see, there’s another man very similar to LeBron- his name is Michael Jordan.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the name, and you probably even recognize the initials MJ. This man isn’t just a basketball player, he’s a god. Revolutionized and popularized basketball to another level, billionaire, philanthropist, basketball god, and an NBA team owner- this man can do it all. Jordan was drafted straight out of the university of North Carolina as the 3rd pick in the 1984 draft. A hyped-up shooting guard who could do it all, the reason he wasn’t picked first was because of scouts doubting his overall physical abilities which he quickly proved scouts wrong by improving and becoming stronger. Just like Lebron Jordan has unheard of numbers and achievements 30 Point career average, six-time NBA champion, six-time finals MVP, five-time league MVP, 14x All-star, 10x NBA first team; this man was also crazy good like Lebron.
When it comes to choosing a GOAT, stats aren’t everything, but they can be helpful. Some say Lebron has worse stats but much better team chemistry or some people say Jordan couldn’t play by himself and always needed good players to surround him. Until the time where we can get time machines to travel back and force a 1v1 between prime Michael Jordan and Lebron James it seems highly unlikely everyone will agree on a GOAT. Until then were just going to have to wait for one side of the fans to eradicate the other or another great to break all NBA records known to man.
Although greatness can’t be measured, we can appreciate and recognize greatness, ‘who’s better?’ may be a question that’s going to get asked over generations, but we can all agree on one thing, and that’s that both players revolutionized the game and brought it to where it’s at today. Lebron and MJ have greatness flowing through their veins and it’s hard to decide on who’s better, the best thing we have to decide are drunk fans raging at each other arguing about who’s better, the old age question that’s been asked for centuries Lebron or Jordan, that questions up to you to decide.
michael jordan cos i like his shoes
Ok cool, but who's the goat?