For years, fans, media, analysts, and even people not related to sports have debated whether Michael Jordan is the greatest player in NBA history or not.
Jordan has quite the strong résumé to back up his case. He holds the highest points-per-game average ever, the most Scoring Titles in NBA history, was a perfect 6/6 in the NBA Finals with 6 Finals MVPs, and countless accolades.
His Airness also made the game global. There wasn’t a single corner in the world where they didn’t know who Michael Jordan is, and that – obviously – helped build the legend around him.
And if you were to ask former Olympic coach Bob Knight, there shouldn’t even be a question or a GOAT debate, as he said in 2017 that Michael Jordan is – hands down – the best player ever:
“The best guy to ever play the game is Michael Jordan, don’t even think about anybody else… Not even close. Because he was just better than anybody, he was smarter, he was tougher, he won more… Having Michael play on our Olympic team was great, and I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to work with him on a team,” the coach said.
Knight sure knows one thing or two about Michael Jordan, as he even coached him briefly during his time with Team USA.
Younger fans may not agree with his statement, though, as they tend to lean towards more modern legends of the game such as Kobe Bryant or LeBron James.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter who the greatest player of all time is. Basketball has come a long way and changed a lot, so it would be wiser and more objective to divide NBA history by eras rather than to try and compare players that didn’t even coexist in the league.
