Even after LeBron James claimed his fourth NBA Championship, not everyone is sold on his status as the NBA’s GOAT.
In a chat on The Dab Roast podcast, 6x All-Star Shawn Kemp explained why he believes LeBron can never match Jordan on basketball’s hierarchy of greatness.
“I’mma say Michael Jordan. I think LeBron James has done great, but only thing Michael Jordan ever did was win. There’s players as myself who haven’t won a championship that were very good. There’s guys who I’ve seen win championships, they’re good players, but they had a good team also around them,” Kemp said. “And I look at Michael Jordan, he played with the Bulls, and he had Scottie Pippen. But without Michael being there, the Bulls wasn’t gonna win the championship. It came from Michael Jordan.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSLgPyHClOw
Obviously, one of the most glaring things about MJ’s resume are his six titles, which came from a perfect 6-0 record in the NBA Finals. In those series, he averaged 33.6 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists per game on 48% shooting. Needless to say, Jordan was a winner who was unstoppable when the stakes were highest.
As a 4x Champion, LeBron knows a thing or two about winning as well. He’s been to the Finals 10 times — though, unlike Jordan, he got defeated more time than he won (a 4-6 record overall).
It’s hard to say for certain what else James needs to do in order to convince Kemp and others that he is the greatest basketball player ever. It’s entirely possible that nothing he does will truly be enough to convince them.
