Jalen Rose has been involved in basketball in some way or another for a very long time at this point. He was part of the legendary “Fab Five” with the University of Michigan in the early 1990s and then spent 13 seasons in the NBA before transitioning to the role of an analyst with ESPN.
With the fascination that comes with all-time lists, it was no surprise that Jalen, considering his involvement in the game for over two decades, was asked recently to give his starting 5 NBA players of all time.
“So positionless… Here’s the team, so Magic (Johnson), Isiah (Thomas), (Michael) Jordan, (Larry) Bird, fifth, el capitan Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar). That’s my all-time five and by the way, you can hate me and or hate my list but when you really break down the history of the game, like all of them is top 12 of all time.”
Rose does make a fair point about those guys all being among the all-time greats, but Isiah Thomas is definitely the most controversial selection there. Rose is probably a little bit biased as he is a Detroit native, but it is his list at the end of the day, and you have to respect his preferences.
Still, as if leaving LeBron James off his starting 5 wasn’t going to ruffle some feathers in itself, Rose also went on to state that for him, Michael Jordan is clearly the GOAT over LeBron, as he pointed out the fact that MJ three-peated twice which James never did, and he won 10 scoring titles as compared to just 1 for LeBron. Rose also added that James has never won Defensive Player of the Year, but Jordan did manage to win it once.
This GOAT debate is a never-ending one, as everyone has their own criteria, as we see with Rose here. James will, in all likelihood, add another major achievement to his resume this upcoming season, as he is close to surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leading scorer. Nick Wright feels that the GOAT debate will be over if James does so and wins a title along the way as well, and it would certainly make the debate a lot more interesting, that’s for sure.
