Michael Jordan retired over 20 years ago, but his name is brought up regularly even today, thanks to the GOAT debate. It’s one of the biggest talking points in sports media, but Jordan himself isn’t a fan of it. His comments on the GOAT debate on Cigar Aficionado recently resurfaced on Reddit, and he dismissed it completely.
“You are never going to say who’s the greatest of all time,” Jordan said. “To me, I think that’s more for PR and more for selling stories and getting hype. Jack [Nicklaus] and Tiger [Woods] never played against each other. They never played in the same tournament, they never played with the same equipment, they never played with the same length of golf course.
“I never played against Wilt Chamberlain, I never played against Jerry West, to now say that one’s greater than the other is being a little bit unfair,” Jordan added. “… I won six championships, Bill Russell won 11. Does that make Bill Russell better than me, or make me better than him? No, because we played at different eras.”
As Jordan pointed out, you can’t really accurately compare players who played in different eras. Team sports already have the variable of teammates, and when you add in different rules and whatnot, a fair comparison of two players across generations becomes difficult.
If rings were the be-all and end-all, then Bill Russell would be the undisputed GOAT. Russell won an NBA-record 11 titles, and it’s safe to say no one is going to be able to surpass him.
Russell isn’t considered the GOAT, though, because he played in a different era. Now, the difference might not be as drastic when we compare Jordan to LeBron James, for example, but they still played in different eras with different rules and circumstances.
All of this won’t stop the comparisons, though. Also, while Jordan isn’t interested in speaking about this, that’s not the case with James. He has openly stated he considers himself the best basketball player of all time.
“What I bring to the table as a basketball player … I feel like I’m the best basketball player that ever played the game,” he said. “That’s just my confidence, that’s just what I bring to the table, what I possess. But as far as if the scoring record gets me to another level, I don’t know.”
James has won four titles, four Finals MVPs, four MVPs, a scoring title, and an assists title in his career. He is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and is setting records that will prove almost impossible to break.
While James has the statistics on his side, Jordan has him beat when it comes to the major accolades. He won six titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, a DPOY, and 10 scoring titles. We did a full comparison of Jordan and James’ careers, and the former beats out the latter.
James still has time to add to his resume, and it will be interesting to see what it looks like when he finally walks away from the game.
