The debate over the greatest player in basketball history is best left to others, because Michael Jordan isn’t touching it.
‘It is an empty comparison,’ Jordan told NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico in the latest installment of his previously recorded interview. ‘You will absolutely never find the true answer to that question. It’s just going to keep [going in circles].’
Jordan specifically dislikes comparing players across generations – an impossibility as he sees it. So, while others weigh Jordan’s career against the resumes of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the six-time NBA champion remains uninvested in the conversation.
‘The whole GOAT [greatest of all time] term is never gonna be something that I ever will get high or low about,’ he said during the segment that aired Monday. ‘It just doesn’t exist for me. I never played against Oscar Robertson or Jerry West. Would’ve loved to, absolutely loved to, just the competitor that I am. And I actually learned from them. We paved the road to the Kobes and LeBrons, right? And to me, that’s the beauty of the game of basketball, that a player after a previous player has evolved the game further.
‘But then—this is how I look at it—don’t use that against the player that actually taught you the game, or that you learned from,’ the 63-year-old continued. ‘That’s where I have a tough time. I would have loved to play against LeBron, Kobe in my prime, I would love to have played against those guys. But we’ll never be able to know that.’
Jordan’s response did include a pointed message about his perceived successors: James, Bryant and Kevin Durant.
While James has referred to himself as the GOAT, Jordan refrained from entering the debate
Lebron James is seen alongside seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady in Las Vegas
‘Look, I think LeBron has had an unbelievable career, and I admire him for what he’s done,’ Jordan said. ‘Kobe, as well as [Kevin Durant], you know, all these guys who have played in this era.
‘I think they’ve elevated the game of basketball tremendously. I just don’t agree when you start trying to put one above the other. It doesn’t work. We’ll never know.
‘We should always honor [the impact of previous generations of players], we should always preserve that, we should always [acknowledge] that they paved the way for a lot of generations after them. I mean Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell had 11 championships. How do you just push them in a corner and say, “We aren’t going to think about you. We forgot about you.”? That, to me, is where I get lost.’
It is difficult to compare statistics from one generation to another. For one, scoring is up in the NBA compared to the mid-1990s because the pace of play has increased by roughly 10 possessions per game.
Likewise, it’s hard to weigh team accomplishments when debating individual players. Russell may have won a record 11 NBA titles, but he did so with a dozen Hall-of-Fame teammates such as John Havlicek, Sam Jones and Bob Cousy.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West and Bill Russell are pictured at the 2018 All-Star Game
Cincinnati Royals legend Oscar Robertson shoots against the Boston Celtics in the 1960s
Russell, like Jordan, always refrained from naming a single ‘greatest player ever,’ but not everyone has remained silent on the issue.
Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and the late Bobby Knight have all said Jordan was the greatest, whereas Jordan’s former friend Charles Barkley has pointed to Robertson, the legendary Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks guard.
James resisted the debate for years, but as he approached and ultimately broke Abdul-Jabbar’s league scoring record, he did refer to himself as the ‘GOAT’ on a few occasions.
Others, such as Isiah Thomas, Jason Kidd and even James’ Boston Celtics rival Paul Pierce have given the nod to the Akron native.
