GOAT – or Greatest of All Time – conversations are commonplace within sports, and that’s certainly true when it comes to basketball. I’ve personally been in a room or two while such a debate was going on. While fans are cognizant of those discussions, current and former players are as well, and that includes Michael Jordan. Long considered to be the best to ever lace up a pair of basketball sneakers, Jordan has his own specific take on the discussions – and I really like the way he views the discourse.
His Airness broached the topic of the GOAT during a recent installment of his (somewhat criticized) MJ: Insights to Excellence series for NBC. Mike Tirico asked for Jordan’s take on the discussion after they discussed his past experiences with the Olympics. While fans may have their takes on which player (or players) trump the rest, Jordan doesn’t seem to be buying into the discussions himself. As for why he’s choosing not to categorize players in such a way, the six-time NBA Finals winner dropped these thoughts:
The whole GOAT term is never going to be something that I ever will get high or low about, you know? It just doesn't exist with me. I never played against Oscar Robertson or Jerry West. [I] would have loved to, absolutely love to, just as [competitive] as I am, you know? And I actually learned from them. And we paved the road to the Kobes and the LeBrons right? And, to me, that’s the beauty of the game of basketball, that a player after a previous has evolved the game further.
What Jordan is saying is that he appreciates the fact that as the years go on, players can put their specific stamps on the game, pushing the sport further while also building on what’s come before. That’s a great perspective to have, and it really speaks volumes coming from the man at the center of so many of these GOAT conversations. In addition to all of that, I can also understand some other comments MJ made during the segment (which is on YouTube). Those sentiments deal with an aspect of debate:
Article continues belowThis is [the way] I look at it. Don’t, then, use [new stats] against the player that actually taught you the game or that you learn from. And that's why I have a tough time – and look, I would love to have played against LeBron and, you know, Kobe in my prime. I would love to have played against those guys, but we'll never be able to know that.Part of the marketing, part of the hype, part of the things that try to elevate one generation above the other, I think it creates animosity. I have no animosity against today’s players but you do have certain players that do have animosity because of the forgottenness of what their contribution has been to the game of basketball.
With that viewpoint in mind, Michael Jordan, of course, seemingly has no reason to have contempt for any current players, especially since he constantly receives his flowers. Many of his contemporaries also speak highly of him. Jordan’s former Bulls teammate, Dennis Rodman, has talked him up, and Magic Johnson has even lauded Jordan as the “strongest” player he’s seen. Nevertheless, Jordan is holding on to his opinion about the conversation:
I've never given it credence, but for other players who look for their existence within the generation of basketball, and we should always honor that. We should always preserve that. We should always reward [the fact] that they paved the road for a lot of generations after that.
This actually isn’t the first time Air Jordan has spoken about being called the GOAT as, during his playing days, he fielded the question. At the time, he put comparisons to Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and co. to rest by saying that he’s simply parallel to those legends, given he didn’t play against them in their primes and vice versa. Quite frankly, it’s great to see Jordan sticking to his principles decades later.
Check out Michael Jordan’s theatrics on the basketball court by checking out the docuseries The Last Dance. The ten-part series is available to stream with a Netflix subscription.
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