Michael Jordan is widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time, surpassing other big names like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain. MJ did some impressive things during his career and calling him the GOAT is the right thing to do. However, it looks like Jordan has his own pick for the GOAT, according to a former teammate of the Chicago Bulls legend.
John Salley played 14 years in the league, winning four championships, sharing touches with Jordan in Chicago. Salley believes Jordan doesn’t consider himself the greatest of all time and in fact, he gives that honor to one of the best point guards the game has seen. During a recent interview with Vlad TV, Salley revealed Jordan was a big admirer of Oscar Robertson.
“He (MJ) started getting more and more popular and I was like ‘dog, they say you’re the greatest player to ever play’. He goes ‘come on sal stop’. I said no, people are saying you’re the greatest player to ever play. Ever. Forget everybody else MJ, they saying you. They only watched you play for four years, you’re the greatest player ever. He was like ‘you know that’s how they do sh*t, you know they put things together. They want to sell sneakers, they want to sell the league’. He don’t believe he the greatest player to ever play… He would say, Oscar Robertson.”
Robertson had a terrific career, individually speaking. He was the King of the triple-doubles until players like LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Luka Doncic landed in the league to break his records. Oscar became one of the best point guards ever with the Milwaukee Bucks, but he didn’t have that much success with his team, only winning a championship when he teamed up with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
To say he’s the GOAT is a little too much from Jordan. However, back in his days, people tend to look more at other things than titles and Robertson was a stat filling machine. He finished his career averaging 25.7 points, 9.5 assists, and 7.5 rebounds.
Still, Jordan became the greatest player and winner in the NBA with the Bulls, racking up six championships, doing incredible things on the court, earning the right to be called ‘GOAT’ without any hesitation.
