ESPN’s all-time greatest NBA players ranking has created a lot of controversies around the league. Once again, most people feel like it’s biased and doesn’t respond to any actual logic more than subjectivity.
For starters, Giannis Antetokounmpo – great as he is- was ranked ahead of players like Isiah Thomas or Allen Iverson, which doesn’t make much sense as of today. But, more surprisingly, they put Kobe Bryant at number 9, which is pretty much unprecedented.
However, the thing that bothered Jalen Rose the most was the fact that ESPN ranked LeBron James at number 2 right behind Michael Jordan. According to him, there are 3 other players that should’ve made the cut prior to the King.
“How LeBron James leapfrogged to number two. When you start talking about all-time greatness you start splitting ears among these players, and I’m gonna name four guys on my Mt. Rushmore that have achieved more, accomplished more, than LeBron James. That have been more dominant: Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell. All of those guys have things that LeBron James hopes to achieve. And then, finally – I know he has a chance to win a championship with the Lakers and if he does so, he will surpass this guy, but when did LeBron pass Magic Johnson? Am I missing something? I know he made 9 Finals in 17 years… Magic made 9 in 12 years! I know LeBron has 3 championships, Magic has 5. Magic is the NBA’s all-time leader in assists, and he was a freak of nature as the only 6’9” point guard in the history of basketball. Oh yeah, the greatest to ever play that position. So those are the things that jumped out to me when I saw this list,” Rose claimed.
Make no mistake here, LeBron James has actually done enough merits to be considered a top-3 player in NBA history. Other than championships, he’s checked all the boxes.
At the end of the day, these rankings will always be subjective and everybody will be entitled to their own opinion, but the internet will leave no stone unturned.
