A lot has been said about the GOAT debate in the last couple of years, especially since Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ 10-part docu-series The Last Dance premiered in April 2020.
The award-winning show reignited debates about who the greatest player of all time is, with many people supporting Jordan or LeBron. Moreover, fans and analysts have restructured their top-10 list of all-time to put Jordan, James, and even other candidates like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar above everybody else.
Michael’s son, Marcus, recently talked about this topic, obviously picking his father as the No. 1 player of all time, but also surprising everybody with his selection for the second-best player ever. He went with Houston Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon, who won two consecutive championships when Jordan retired to pursue a baseball career.
During a recent conversation with Bulls Talk (via Essentially Sports), he was asked about the second-best player of all time. While many Jordan fans would say James, he went with the Dream.
“Until LeBron’s journey is over, I can’t put him there. I’m probably going Hakeem. I’m just thinking of guys that really changed the game. … It’s hard to take somebody from this era and put them in that 90s era. If you didn’t play in that era, you don’t really understand the magnitude of what it was, day in and day out. It was a grind.”
Marcus has used the same argument many others have used to explain why LeBron would have had a hard time playing in the 80s and 90s. Seeing how Bron is built, it’s simply ridiculous to think he wouldn’t have fared well 30 and 40 years ago. The King is a machine and really strong even to the standards of those years.
Hakeem is considered one of the greatest centers of all time, and more often than not, a top 15 player of all time. His two championships came after he went through hell with the Rockets, but it’s clear that other players have better resumes than him, including James.
