Former NBA player Josh Powell won two championships alongside Kobe Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers, but he doesn’t believe his former teammate is the greatest ever. During an appearance on Scorer’s Society, Powell explained why he thinks LeBron James is the GOAT.
“I really do feel in my heart of hearts, LeBron James at the end of the day, that’s top dog,” Powell said. “We ain’t seen nothing like that. They just put a stat up for people that have played 20 years. And it was a list of who? Jamal [Crawford], Dirk [Nowitzki], [Kevin Garnett]… I think KG might have been the closest with nine points.”
Powell is amazed by James putting up big numbers at this stage of his career. The 40-year-old averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game for the Lakers in 2024-25, his 22nd season in the NBA.
Vince Carter is the only other player to have played 22 seasons in the NBA, and he averaged 5.0 points, 2.1 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.4 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game in that campaign. The difference is mind-blowing.
Powell believes such incredible longevity is only dismissed because James is the player. He reckons that if Michael Jordan had done this, people wouldn’t stop talking about how amazing it is.
“How do you remain that consistent and locked in for that amount of time? Powell wondered. “I mean, it can be done, but I think there are people that just don’t care.”
James’ love for basketball has never been questioned. He lives and breathes the game, and that, along with his desire to win more championships, is what keeps him going.
James has won four titles, four Finals MVPs, four MVPs, a scoring title, and an assists title in his career. He has made a record 21 All-Star and 21 All-NBA teams and is the league’s all-time leading scorer. Those are phenomenal feats, but his critics are not impressed by them.
A lot of former players also tend to rank Bryant over James, and Will Barton spoke about why that’s the case. Barton thinks the former’s taking the harder road earned him more respect than the latter.
Powell, who played in the NBA for seven seasons, doesn’t fall under this category, but that doesn’t mean he lacks love for his former teammate. He revealed he once considered Bryant to be the greatest player ever, even ahead of Jordan. Powell has only moved over to Team James after being blown away by the longevity.
While you can make a case for James to be ahead of Jordan, there might not really be one for Bryant if we just look at the resumes.
Jordan won six titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, one DPOY, and 10 scoring titles in his career. In comparison, Bryant won five titles, two Finals MVPs, one MVP, and two scoring titles.
Bryant modeled his game after Jordan, and while they were ever so similar, one just proved to be better than the other. NBA analyst Nick Wright even stated that Jordan had Bryant beat in every category. Wright used that point to explain why the Lakers icon does not belong in the GOAT conversation.
