We have now gotten to a generation of basketball fans who never really saw Michael Jordan play the game. Jordan is still widely regarded as the GOAT, but the new-age NBA fan doesn’t quite understand how great he was.
Rapper Symba was one of them, but a conversation with Kevin Durant at his home in Phoenix changed all of that. During an appearance on the Earn Your Leisure podcast, Symba explained how Durant convinced him that Jordan is the GOAT.
“I apologize, you (Jordan) are the greatest basketball player of all time,” Symba said. “If there’s ever a GOAT, even though I said no one’s the GOAT, we’re all the GOAT, if there’s ever a GOAT, it’s because of you. I’m sorry I apologize, you are the greatest of all time.”
Symba indicated that Durant was rather upset over him not recognizing Jordan as the GOAT and went on quite the rant.
“I went to KD’s house after Game 4,” Symba continued. “Bro, he literally put me through Michael Jordan School, literally from the beginning, dawg. Like, ‘You can’t never say that again. You gotta understand they wouldn’t even pick guards in the top five of players before Mike… there’s no stop-and-pop, there’s no fadeaway. You gotta understand I’m able to dribble the way I dribble, cross people over because Mike went to the front office and said people can’t keep playing this aggressive.'”
What sealed the deal for Symba was when Durant brought up MJ’s 1987-88 season with the Chicago Bulls, when he won MVP, DPOY, and made All-NBA First Team.
“The part that got me was when he told me he won MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and all-team NBA in the same season,” Symba added. “I said, ‘Dawg I am foul. I am foul and I apologize.’ I did not understand it.”
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Durant had actually in the past picked MJ as his GOAT, but who knew he was this passionate about it? It could be possible that Symba just went a bit overboard when explaining how things went down between them, but that’s something only the two of them know about.
As for how these two actually know each other, they connected through Justin Laboy, who was acquainted with both of them. They are on great terms now and KD even visited Symba last year to listen to his “Results Take Time” album before it was released.
The GOAT Debate
The GOAT debate is one that will never end, simply because it is subjective at the end of the day and you’re comparing players from different eras. We tried our hand at it earlier this month by looking at the careers of Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, and Bill Russell.
The result was Jordan and Kareem somewhat surprisingly being tied at the top. Of course, someone else can use other parameters and make a case for another player, so again, it’s hard to get a definitive answer. Former NBA player John Salley is just done with this debate now, as he thinks you can’t compare eras.
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