This Article Was Written By Kirshner
Its time for the world to retire the idea of comparing elite players to the so called G.O.A.T. For those that don’t know what it means; The GOAT refers to the Greatest of All Time. In the sport of soccer it’s Pele, in the NFL its a debate between Jim Brown and Joe Montana, and for the NBA its his Airness himself Michael Jordan. That is how it has been for the last 20 years.
Anyone who comes near to Jordan’s accomplishments is unfairly punished by comparisons to him in every aspect of their careers. Yes, Michael Jordan is the ultimate measuring stick when it comes to the greats that grace the court, but is it fair to call him the greatest of all time until the end of the time. That seems to be the path that we are heading down, we saw it with Kobe, and he was branded as the closest carbon copy to Mike, from the jump shots to the “clutch” gene. Kobe may have been the greatest player of his era, but the knock on him is that he he only won one MVP, or didn’t win any DPOY awards like Jordan. It is a backhanded compliment, “you had a great career but you were not Mike” it diminishes a player’s accomplishment by constantly comparing his career to Jordan’s. Its flat out unfair.
LeBron James is currently the best player in the NBA, and has been for nearly a decade, he has a career average of 27 points per game which is ranked 5th all time, but once the conversation of just how good he truly is, the naysayers begin to nitpick and compare his accomplishments to MJ’s. The question is why? For the majority of his career, no matter what LeBron has done, its considered not good enough. He carried a bad Cavs team in 2007 to the NBA Finals and got swept by the Spurs, and all you hear people say to slight him is “Jordan would have won at least 1 game in that series”, seriously? James has won four MVP awards and the Jordan fanatics say “he has no DPOY awards”, seriously? There is nothing LeBron can do that will not be analyzed in comparison to what MJ has done.
We have witnessed (no pun intended) a Phenom live up to all the hype built up since he was in middle school, but we can’t enjoy him without there being that crowd in the back saying he will never be Jordan. Bottom line is LeBron James is the greatest player of this generation, and one of the greatest ever; he is this generation’s Jordan. When it is all over, he just might surpass MJ, but as of now, stop trying to diminish everything he has done and will do. I am calling for an end to the comparisons to the “G.O.A.T”, and say it is time to pay respects to players by era.
LeBron is a once in a lifetime player, so was Kobe, as was Jordan. Let us stop diminishing these players accomplishments and just enjoy them while we still can. LeBron said it best:
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