Allen Iverson may have given the most refreshing take on the GOAT debate in quite some time. Speaking in an interview with Marc J. Spears for Andscape, Iverson explained why he hates being asked to choose a GOAT between Michael Jordan and LeBron James. He noted that he loves both players and while he considers LeBron James to be the best overall basketball player, Michael Jordan is the GOAT for him.
“I hate it because I love both of them so much and both of them did so much for our game. LeBron, I think, to me is the best overall basketball player that we’ll ever see. If you look in the dictionary and look up basketball player, there’ll be a picture of LeBron.”
“But for me, it’s so different because Mike was everything to me. He gave me the vision. He made me want to play basketball. He’s my everything. I wanted to actually be like him, like the commercial, ‘Be like Mike,’ I really wanted to be him. I’m still starstruck every time I see him. I’m still nervous every time. Because he’s Mike to me. He’s my guy.”
“So there’ll never be no one at the top of my list besides Mike. But LeBron is just everything that you want in a basketball player. He’s a total package. He’s God’s gift to the basketball world.”
Iverson masterfully explained his perspective on the matter, while not being critical of either star. For him, LeBron James, a player he faced numerous times in his career, is perhaps the most complete basketball player in the history of the sport. And there is certainly a lot of evidence to support that.
However, Iverson did remark that Michael Jordan’s impact on him and his generation, combined with his incredible range of achievements over a nearly 20-year career, make him the greatest of all time.
This is a take we don’t hear very often, especially from players of the previous generation. Many players choose to either criticize Michael Jordan or more often, LeBron James, when comparing the two. They look to their flaws as players while doing what is effectively a pros-and-cons list of both stars.
And then there is the third, less-frequently traveled road that players take, which is to put themselves or another player above both Jordan and LeBron. Scottie Pippen recently did this, claiming that neither of the two mercurial stars was the best to ever do it, and putting Magic Johnson in that category.
Iverson chose to give both players their flowers and explain how both have impacted the sport, their contemporaries, and the culture around the sport. We could do with more nuanced arguments like this, which focus on trying to highlight the positive contributions of both legends rather than tearing one of them down to prop up the other.
The GOAT debate will persist beyond all of our lifetimes. And there will be players in the future that come in and put themselves in the same echelon as Jordan and LeBron, if not surpass them entirely. But for now, as long as the debate continues, we can only hope that more people try to give their thoughts in the way Allen Iverson did.
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