The tweet went up shortly after LeBron James’ historic, record-setting fallaway Tuesday night, from Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray, with the requisite goat and basketball emojis:
“LeBron James Is The GREATEST OF ALL TIME!!! Debate OVER!!!!!”
LeBron James Is The GREATEST OF ALL TIME!!! 🐐 Debate OVER!!!!! 🏀
— Dejounte Murray (@DejounteMurray) February 8, 2023
And yes, that tweet started the debate all over again. The Michael Jordan stans weighed in, of course, and there was lobbying in that thread alone for Kobe Bryant, deposed record-holder Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Steph Curry, and even Manu Ginobili for crying out loud.
Yeah, we know. Recency bias. Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and all of those other greats from the eras before the ubiquity of televised highlights? No chance they could ever contend for G.O.A.T. status, at least on Twitter.
If the object of the game, winning, was indeed the most important thing, the process would be easy.
LeBron has won four NBA championship rings. Kobe and Magic won five each. Kareem won six, the same as Jordan. And while Jordan was 6 for 6 in NBA Finals, as his fans are quick to point out, Bill Russell was 11 for 12 in Finals and 27-2 in all playoff series before he retired in 1969, and his teams didn’t lose a series from 1959 into 1967.
End of discussion?
(And you can’t imagine how agonizing it is to rehash that for someone who grew up watching Russell’s Celtics beat the Lakers nearly every spring. But facts are facts.)
Really, though, is the G.O.A.T. debate even worth having?
This is a league with a proud and vibrant history, and enough immortals have won NBA uniforms over more than three-quarters of a century that when the league picked its 75th anniversary team last season, the debates over who got snubbed were spirited.
George Mikan, Paul Arizin and Dolph Schayes, the pioneers from the league’s…
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