What I especially found interesting is, that, as a Michael Jordan fan who grew up in the 1990s and to all the championships that the Chicago Bulls were winning, (spoiler alert) I decided that MJ really wasn't the Greatest Of All Time. However, I will let you read on and discover for yourself who I did ultimately decide for that honor. And today, with LeBron James finally starting to age, my argument may stick with me for a while yet.
Who is my choice for NBA Greatest Of All Time, and why?
Argument as of Monday 18 September 2017
This is tricky. From George Mikan’s days in the ‘50s to now, the game has changed so much. In Bill Russell’s day, there were fewer teams, players didn’t know how to shoot very well compared to now, and the game was much, much, more physical.
Questions I would have to ponder:
1.) how much does winning matter?
2.) specifically, how much of the “winning” mattering is based on championships?
3.) stats?
4.) specifically, how much does scoring matter?
5.) or, how about things like triple-doubles? how much does that matter?
6.) do I even get into quality of teammates or even coaches?
Here’s what I do know, historically — not looking up facts for this right now, just by what I believe I understand to be true:
1.) George Mikan was the first dominant player in the NBA in the ‘50s and won multiple championships.
2.) Bill Russell’s Celtics owned the ‘60s and into the ‘70s.
3.) Prior to Magic and Bird arriving into the NBA in 1979, there were some years in the ‘70s when the question of greatest current player or greatest current team was in flux. The Sonics, Knicks, Bullets all won championships in this time. Probably the Blazers, too. There was no team that dominated during this time the way the Celtics had done previously.
4.) Bird’s Celtics only won three championships. Magic and Kareem’s Lakers were slightly more successful. During this time Magic and Kareem dominated the stats — scoring for both, assists for Magic, rebounds and the hook shot for Kareem.
5.) After a brief blip where Detroit took home a couple championships, Michael Jordan’s Bulls owned the ‘90s. Olajuwon’s Rockets also took home a couple championships, just like Detroit did.
6.) From 1999 to 2003, all the championships were won by the Spurs of Tim Duncan and David Robinson, or the Lakers of Shaq and Kobe.
7.) From 2005 to 2010, all the championships except one — OK, two — were won by the Spurs of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker, or Kobe’s Lakers. Shaq got one of them with the Miami Heat. The other was won by a group of other deserving Hall of Fame talent (Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen) who I think could have won as many as Kobe or Duncan, but didn’t.
8.) Since 2011, LeBron James has been in every Finals. [2019 update: LeBron went to every NBA Finals from 2011-2018. In 2019 his team missed the playoffs.] The only two opponents who have really beaten him in his career (more than once) are the aforementioned Duncan’s Spurs, or the Golden State Warriors of Stephen Curry and friends.
That brings us to today. So, from what I know, who could feasibly end up on this list of Greatest Of All Time players?
1.) George Mikan
2.) Bill Russell
3.) Magic Johnson
4.) Larry Bird
5.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
6.) Michael Jordan
7.) Hakeem Olajuwon
8.) Tim Duncan
9.) Shaquille O’neal
10.) Kobe Bryant
11.) LeBron James
*** too early to add Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant on this list just yet. But in five years’ time I expect they’ll be in the discussion.
So that’s eleven players. We can’t have eleven GOATs. I’m immediately eliminating the following: George Mikan, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kobe Bryant.
1.) George Mikan because the NBA was still very early in its development as a league — I remember hearing stories from Bill Russell or his teammates about how early in their careers which team they played on seemed to change by the day, or at least that’s how things seemed to be run in the league. A lot more Wild Wild West and pickup basketball with a lot fewer skills held by a lot fewer players. Sure, Babe Ruth dominated baseball when he played, but also there were a lot more horrible players then. Same thing here.
2.) It’s interesting how when I was growing up (I grew up following the Jordan Bulls) how Larry Bird was still considered a great player. Then Kobe, Shaq, Duncan, and LeBron entered the league and dominated during their time there. Now Larry Bird is not quite as good, certainly not compared to these folks. Bird at his peak was as good as anyone ever was — but it seems his peak was quite short. When he wasn’t at his peak he was still very good and probably excellent, but no one today in this conversation of GOAT makes a case for him.
3.) Hakeem Olajuwon only won two championships, right when Jordan was in the middle of his first retirement. He took advantage of that gap, but never went up against Jordan himself. Jordan calls Olajuwon the best center who played at the same time he played, but it is fascinating how Olajuwon never advanced to the Finals any other year. Even during the Bulls’ championship run, the Western Conference was still pretty wild. The only opponent the Bulls ever faced more than once in the Finals was the Utah Jazz of Karl Malone and John Stockton. All the other years in the ‘90s (besides Houston), the Lakers, Blazers, Suns, and Sonics took a crack at the Finals.
4.) It was hard to pick another player beyond the first three. Kobe Bryant was the player that was *almost* Jordan. Three of his championships came with Shaq as a teammate. Bryant also had many seasons of his teams being terrible because he had no supporting cast. Where I would go with furthering my argument to remove Bryant from the list is that he never won MVP. Or maybe he won one. Bottom line, Duncan won at least two, and even made Sportsman of the Year. I have seen all the SI covers dating back to the ‘50s, and it is *hard* to make Sportsman of the Year. The Sportsman has to not only be the best in his or her sport but also be better than the best in all the other sports to make the cover.
5.) The next player I might remove is Shaq. Again, I’m removing another player I saw on TV, and saw his dominance. Outside of Duncan (and even including Duncan), no team wanted to challenge Shaq because of his size and strength. Where I knock Shaq down a peg or two is linked with what I shared about Larry Bird: Shaq’s peak was incredibly high but short. He did win four championships, but again, all of them were with a superstar teammate who could take the load off him (Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade).
Who is left? Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, LeBron James.
What is the one-sentence case for each?
1.) Bill Russell: 11 championships
2.) Magic Johnson: 5 championships, dominated and revolutionized the point guard position
3.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 6 championships, 6 NBA MVPs, 2-time NBA Finals MVP, NBA’s all-team leading scorer
4.) Michael Jordan: 6 championships in 8 seasons, 6-0 Finals record, 6-time NBA Finals MVP, 5 NBA MVPs
5.) Tim Duncan: 5 championships with 3 almost completely different teams (he is the only player on the 1999 and 2014 teams).
6.) LeBron James: 3 championships, 8 trips to the Finals (7 in a row), 4 NBA MVPs, career is not done yet so he can still add to his case here. [2019 update: 9 trips to the Finals (8 in a row)]
OK, how about the one-sentence case against each?
1.) Bill Russell: Outside of Wilt Chamberlain, who I’m not even putting on this list because he didn’t win much although he scored and rebounded a lot, there weren’t any other good players in the league. Bill Russell is kind of like Babe Ruth in that even though his sport existed for a few decades before he entered the league, he was the league’s first really stand-out dominant player (Mikan was the league’s first dominant player, but for some reason he just doesn’t stand out in the same way). The knock against Russell is that outside of Chamberlain, there really wasn’t sufficient competition. 11 championships don’t quite mean the same when there were no other teams that were able to really challenge Russell for championships.
2.) Magic Johnson: his career was cut short by HIV, so his overall personal numbers suffered as a result.
3.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: you know, I’m not sure that I can find a shortcoming. Maybe that he won NBA Finals MVP only 2x, compared with Jordan who won 6 of the same award.
4.) Michael Jordan: this is hard because I grew up following the Bulls. I have recently decided that Jordan is a (*sigh*) jerk and I’m not sure that I personally would like him. One of the arguments I have heard is that Jordan didn’t really have that true rival that also played his position that also could have overlapped his career. Kobe came too late, Magic and Bird had already been in the league five years, and Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose right after being drafted two years after Jordan. During Jordan’s career, the Jazz were the most formidable opponent (and the Rockets would have been another), but every other contender that had hopes of a shot at the Bulls never really hung around for more than a couple years — the Pacers, Knicks, Pistons, Magic in the east, the aforementioned Jazz and Rockets, the Suns, Sonics and that’s it. Every other team faded because they didn’t keep reloading like the Bulls did. That’s one advantage that Magic, Bird, and Kareem had, and that LeBron has now.
5.) Tim Duncan strikes me as the quietest name on the list. His teams didn’t always win — the Spurs never went back-to-back — and oftentimes their victories were attributed to “the Spurs culture” rather than Duncan. [2019 update: I will reference Duncan again in 2 paragraphs; see updated note re: my "Spurs culture" comment.] With the ‘90s Bulls, Jordan *was* the culture. Same thing with LeBron now. So, maybe this is a name I cut in the next round of deliberation.
6.) LeBron James: 5 Finals losses. Then again, the league has been stronger this decade than before, with Wade and Anthony arriving in 2003, Chris Paul in 2005, Kevin Durant in 2007, Russell Westbrook in 2008, Stephen Curry and James Harden in 2009. I wonder if part of why James lost in the Finals more is simply because he has had better challengers than say Jordan did? Then again, in Year 2 of LeBron’s career, the league changed a few key defense rules to allow offense to flow more. They did away with a lot of the hard defense that Jordan and others faced.
So, here are my final 3:
1.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2.) Michael Jordan
3.) LeBron James
My three I eliminated:
4.) Bill Russell: the league was terrible outside of Wilt Chamberlain and the other Celtics players. 11 rings easily becomes 6 (or fewer) with competition that Magic, Kareem, or LeBron have faced.
5.) Magic Johnson: his career was cut short by HIV
6.) Tim Duncan: I originally wrote that his accomplishments was more the result of the “Spurs culture” rather than Duncan himself. I eventually found an article that basically stated that Duncan was the Spurs culture. So, I'm instead going with the fact that he won only 2 NBA MVPs, and 3 NBA Finals MVPs, which in each case is less than many others of his peers.
So how do I choose from the Final 3? This is where it’s difficult. Kareem, Jordan, and LeBron all played in different eras (Kareem’s era was slightly different from Jordan’s, LeBron’s was way different). I count Kareem’s 6 titles because they came against worthy competition. Did Jordan’s 6 come against worthy competition? Only the Jazz of 1997 and 1998 and maybe the Suns of 1993 were legit opponents of the Bulls in the Finals, and the others were the Knicks in the early ‘90s and the Pacers of 1998. What about LeBron? Even though today it seems he can breeze through the East and then have his hands full in the Finals, it’s easy to forget that he got beaten by teams in the East — Garnett’s Celtics, Dwight Howard’s Magic, and even the Pistons once upon a time.
So I can make two concluding arguments, one that says I can’t name a single GOAT, citing the difficulty of comparing the eras between the three and how that would have affected their careers had any of them come earlier or later. The other argument says that I can, and that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the GOAT. Why? First, 6 rings; second, 6 NBA MVPs; plus he is the NBA’s leading all-time scorer. That is hard to beat. Jordan never got there, and although LeBron is climbing the all-time scoring ladder, it is still a long way to pass Kareem. And he’s only going to get older.
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