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What Makes a GOAT?

Thoughts on MJ vs. LeBron

By Matthew WilliamsPublished 6 years ago 10 min read
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It’s June 19 and LeBron is almost certainly going to be wearing a different colored uniform next season. The man is 33-years-old and is no longer playing for league dominance—he’s achieved that multiple times, from his pure athletic superiority during his first Cavs run, to the fear the Heat spread across the league, to his transcendence into a basketball savant in his most recent stint in Cleveland. LeBron no longer has anything to prove. He’s shown that he is the best player in the present day NBA landscape. He’s shown that he is clutch, ending that myth when he beat a 73 win Warrior team with one of the greatest blocks of all time. He’s shown he’s a winner, clinching two rings in Miami and then a coveted third in Cleveland. He’s no longer in the arena with the likes of Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, or James Harden. Now he is battling with something that may be impossible to defeat—the ghost of Michael Jordan.

Reporters grew up watching the original basketball GOAT himself dominate the sports world. Some contrarians will respond by saying that Wilt is the original GOAT, or Bill Russell, or KAJ or Magic or Bird. But no athlete reached the worldwide fervor or captured the imagination of the globe quite like Michael Jordan. He was a literal sports sensation. He was the first, unquestionable basketball GOAT.

GOAT’s in all sports separate themselves in a few different ways. The first, and in today’s sport’s age one of growing importance, is through sheer statistical dominance. With the advent of the Internet and the growth of easily accessible, simple to manipulate, online statistics, it has become second nature for armchair basketball scouts to look at the numbers to validate their beliefs about any given player. Equations can now quantify aspects of the sport that were once impossible to compare, taking into account “advanced stats” or statistics that supposedly highlight the highest achievements of the game. Stats are vital to a person’s legacy. Stats validate the inner beliefs that people have. Stats make the case for GOAT easier. MJ had stats.

Michael Jordan had 38 40-point games in the playoffs, the most in NBA history. His 1987-1988 season was arguably the greatest single season of all time. He played 82 games, averaged 35 ppg, averaged 5.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists, won MVP, DPoY, while having a .603 true shooting percentage. MJ’s VORP is 104.4, his OTRG is 118, his PER is 29.1, and his WS/48 is .250. These all rank high amongst the other basketball greats. Michael Jordan dominated the statistical world of the NBA in the same way that all greats have.

But statistics aren’t the only way that GOAT’s are judged. The eye-test is just as important. Statistical dominance is not enough to convince the average NBA viewer of someone’s greatness—if it was then an ultra-efficient scoring machine like Kevin Durant would be a top-five player of all time. Statistics are just empty numbers unless they are complemented with great moments that people remember for all time. These moments are the times in sports that a child will remember for the rest of his life, the moments that little kids reenact in the driveway with their friends. They are replayed on ESPN countless times and eventually become standard images in the halls of NBA history. A legend needs a handful of these moments to cement his greatness. A GOAT needs more. Michael had more.

The Shot. The Dunk. The Shrug. The retirement and subsequent return. Hell, even Space Jam. Michael Jordan had numerous moments throughout his career that can be drummed up in a single image. Possibly the most defining moment in his illustrious career was the Flu Game, a game that conjures up the classic image of Jordan collapsing into Pippen’s arms after dropping 38 points in a critical game five against the Utah Jazz. This moment has transcended basketball and became a part of American sports lore. People have marveled, discussed, questioned, and above all loved the Flu Game. This is the mark of a great moment, that even now, over twenty years later, people are still discussing one of Michael Jordan’s games of basketball. These moments elevate players into different categories, from stars to all-stars to hall of famers to legends to, sometimes, GOAT’s. Moments like these are what separates Shaq, Magic, Bird, Kareem, and the rest from Michael Jordan. Legends have a few. GOAT’s have many.

When a player achieves statistical dominance and legendary moments, there is only one other aspect they need to solidify themselves as the GOAT—championships. It is a shame that a team accomplishment such as championships are used to determine the value of an individual’s power in a sport, but the American sports world has always been this way. The most valuable sports franchises in the United States also happen to be the ones that have won the most—the Yankees, the Lakers, the Cowboys and Steelers and Patriots. GOAT’s have championships—Brady, Rice, Gretzky, Phelps, Ali. Jordan won six championships through two three-peats on an international stage. He dominated a decade that saw the rise in international basketball interest and became the first worldwide sensation. His finals record is unblemished and he was always dominant on the biggest stage. His rings cemented him as the GOAT.

Stats, moments, and championships. These three things together make someone the greatest of all time. It is impossible to be the GOAT unless you dominate each of these three. Before Michael, it was hard to quantify anyone as the best in all three. Early basketball didn’t have enough visibility to give players like Russell or Wilt the moments they needed. The 80s saw the battle of the Lakers and Celtics, hurting Bird and Magic as they split championships. The early 2000s saw iso-heavy, inefficient basketball that ruined the images of Kobe and the like in the minds of statistical scouts. Jordan emerged at the right moment in time to rise to the top of the basketball world and was unquestioned for years. He played in what some believe to be the most exciting generation of the NBA. He also played in the generation that occurred right before I was born.

I became aware of the NBA in the waning years of MJ’s dominance. I remember watching his once generational talent play incredibly average basketball on the Wizards and believing him to be the best simply because of what my cousins told me. I remember watching Kobe Bryant dominate the NBA in a way that made them call him “Jordan lite.” And I remember being incredibly bored with basketball, preferring to watch the NFL or even the MLB as opposed to the iso-heavy, narrativeless NBA of the early and middle 2000s. So it wasn’t until game five of the 2007 NBA Eastern Conference Finals that my interest in basketball was once again peaked.

I was a playoff NBA viewer in 2007. You can mock, but I was 12-years-old and only cared about the Indiana Pacers who were, at the time, dismal. The Indianapolis Colts were a much more exciting team for a 12-year-old to watch, so the NBA took a back seat. I had a friend who was in the eighth grade and loved the NBA, so when he asked me to come to his house to watch game five of a playoff game I was thrilled. I begged my mom to let me go and off I went. I didn’t care about the 53-win Detroit Pistons or the 50-win Cleveland Cavaliers. I was hanging out with an older friend and was just pumped to be there. My only knowledge of LeBron James came from ESPN’s constant coverage of the man, mainly streaming from the debate between Kobe fans and LeBron fans. I liked Kobe so I naturally became a LeBron hater.

If you aren’t familiar with game five of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2007, then I would recommend you find some old film and watch the game. I say this because it was the first defining moment in LeBron’s career that I ever saw in person, and it honestly could be the first legendary moment of his entire career. It is also incredibly difficult to conjure up one specific moment from this game. Unlike the Flu Game or the Shot, LeBron’s first moment was really an entire quarter that words can’t describe. But, like all writers, I’m going to describe it to you.

Going into Game Five, the Cavs were tied with the Pistons at two games apiece. The Pistons had won the previous two NBA finals and a 22-year-old LeBron was willing a defensive minded but offensive lacking team throughout the playoffs. This series was turning into a battle. LeBron had been heavily criticized in games 1 and 2 for his lack of production. He turned hero in games 3 and 4, but then had to return to the Palace, an arena that the Cavs had struggled in. Game Five felt like it was going to be the turning point for the two teams, with whoever winning coming out on top in the series. As a 12-year-old, I didn’t feel this. This game meant little to me. But LeBron’s performance was stunning.

With the score at 79-78 Cleaveland and 6:05 remaining, LeBron went on a scoring run that will forever stick with me. He hit 11 of 13 shots and scored 29 of Cleveland’s final 30 points, including scoring the final 25 points for the Cavs. He dominated the Pistons, a team known for their defense, and ingrained himself in NBA history at 22 years of age. He also fired up a 12-year-old’s love for the NBA.

I continued to hate LeBron for a number of years. I was one of the people who jeered at him when he made the Decision, another famous moment for the King. I laughed when the Mavs beat him and was shell-shocked when he had a historic game six against the Boston Celtics on route to his first ring. I remember the epic 2013 Heat-Spurs finals that featured a Ray Allen three and an awesome LeBron game seven. My hatred for him had turned to simple disdain as I watched him battle a 2014 Spurs team that wasn’t about to lose twice in a row. He surprised me by returning to Cleveland, deciding to win a ring for his hometown no matter the costs. By the time the Warriors emerged as a dominant team, LeBron had won my respect, battling a great team without the help of Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love. By the end of that series, LeBron was a legend in my mind. In 2016, LeBron battled back from a 3-1 deficit, capitalizing on it with a legendary block and nearly completing the greatest dunk of all time. In that moment, he became my GOAT.

LeBron has the statistics. He is an ultra-efficient scorer who could become the only person ever in the 40k, 10k, 10k club. He is an all-around great basketball player, being in the top twenty in every major statistical category. He has the moments, as I described above. He is an international sensation and forced the second greatest player in the NBA today to join the greatest team of all time simply because neither side believed they could beat LeBron. He is the only person to have challenged Michael since MJ retired. And he is only missing one thing- championships.

And that is why I believe that LeBron will leave Cleveland. The Cavs don’t have the ability to form a consistent winning team around LeBron and the Warriors are a nightmarish team to a man chasing six rings. LeBron has shown that he can face these Warriors and compete, as shown in a magnificent game 1 of this years NBA finals. But he needs other stars to help him out. The Cavs gave him JR Smith. Other teams can give him better players. LeBron is no longer competing against the present-day NBA, he is competing against Michael Jordan. While your average 20-year-old will say that LeBron is the GOAT, the consensus won’t be in his favor unless he wins at least three more rings. This is what he is chasing. The Warriors are an obstacle in his way. He can overcome them, but not in Cleveland.

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