Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest players the game has ever seen and there is a case to be made, that he is the greatest. Kareem was a force in the league during the 1970s and well into the 1980s, during which he won 6 NBA championships to go with a record 6 MVP awards. He also remains the all-time leading scorer in NBA history with 38,387 points and he is also a record 19-time All-Star.
The list of records can go on and on at this point, so it is not a surprise that a lot of people, like Paul Pierce, do consider him to be the GOAT. Kareem was recently asked about the GOAT debate which usually involves Michael Jordan and LeBron James when he was on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and he had a hilarious response to it.
(starts at the 3:18 mark)
“I’ll answer. The GOAT committee meets in secret, OK? So… that’s just something we’re not going to know about, you know? But if LeBron breaks my record this next year coming up, that will be one last record that I won’t have to worry about ever again.”
Kareem found a funny way to avoid the topic completely and had Fallon laughing at the response. He is not going to get dragged into this as he probably would consider himself the GOAT. He is fully entitled to think that way too, after everything that he has accomplished with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers.
There is no right answer to this question, as it is entirely subjective, but people will keep debating about it until the end of time. Jordan is regarded by most as the greatest after winning 6 championships with the Bulls to go with his many other accolades but a lot of people disagree and go with LeBron. James is making a case for it and as Kareem said, he is in all likelihood, going to surpass him in points next season as the King is just over 1000 points away. If and when that happens, it will invariably bring up the GOAT debate once again.
