5 Weakest Arguments Against LeBron Being the G.O.A.T.
Shoutout to Cici for sending me this article, because I had been avoiding sports talk for a minute now, because there are more important topics that need discussing at the moment. However, now that LeBron has won his fourth ring/Finals MVP, the G.O.A.T. discussion is being revived by those who believe that LeBron has now attained a level of success that warrants him leapfrogging His Airness, Michael Jordan.
I am a basketball connoisseur, and make it a point to look at everything as objectively as I possibly can at everything that goes into a conversation like this. Everything gets put into account with the knowledge that I have, and I’m not into the analytics, unlike the Rockets (look where that has got them.)
So, this article is from medium.com, and they attempted to list the top 5 weak arguments against LeBron being the G.O.A.T., and ranked them. So I’m going to pick them apart, starting with number 5 and moving up their list.
5. “He didn’t spend his entire career with one team.”
This argument is not a good one. While old heads might be used to players not switching teams, sticking with one squad and making it work, that actually isn’t how we should want our athletes to be. That limits their power, and ensures that they will be underpaid and stuck in situations where their talents will be misused. Take LeBron in his first stint with the Cavs. People were upset at him for leaving, but when you look at the moves that the Cavs were making in those years, they weren’t putting championship talent around him, and LeBron himself hadn’t learned how to truly carry a team to championship wins. So, he left, learned from Wade how to carry a team, and has been doing it ever since.
4. “The league is soft as a baby’s ass these days.”
This couldn’t be more true. The league encourages offensive explosions, and therefore doesn’t encourage defense. Numbers put butts in seats, and nobody wants to see a 86-80 game (except basketball purists), so therefore defense has to suffer, which means the league is softer. No hand checking, no touching offensive players, softer fouls, and more lead to the league being softer. Need proof? Multiple players and coaches have said that if Jordan played in this era (he averaged 30 points in an era where teams averaged 90 ppg), he would easily average 40 ppg, or possibly more.
3. “He’s lost six times in the finals.”
This, too, is valid. Whenever you try to enter Jordan’s perfect winning record on the highest stage into the conversation, people will try to downplay that by saying that Jordan didn’t win it EVERY year he was in the league, and LeBron has put up incredible numbers. But when he got there, Jordan won. If would be different if we didn’t know if he won, but we do. People play the game to be the best, but how you show you’re the best is winning, and losing, no matter what kind of stats you put up. Winning is the ultimate show of how good you are, and compiling stats along the way is the best way to pad that theory. LeBron has the cumulative stats for sure, but his winning leaves something to be desired.
2. “He doesn’t have the DNA of an assassin.”
This isn’t true, at all. LeBron is clutch, though he had to learn how to be clutch during his time in Miami. What he learned, he has been showing the rest of the league ever since. From go ahead baskets to buzzer beaters, to on point dimes that teammates have hit, LeBron always makes the right play at the end of the game, and that can be just as clutch as someone taking and making contested shots at the end of the game. Clutch suggests that the best player take the ball and do something with it, and the greatest players do just that, from Jordan to LeBron, Kobe, and anyone else you can think of. LeBron is clutch, so we can put this to bed.
1. “Jordan. That’s it. That’s the argument.”
While I am inclined to agree with this, the argument definitely has to come from an explanation of why Jordan is the greatest, not just saying his name. Jordan will remain the greatest until I am positive that someone can dethrone him, and while Lebron is coming, he has NOT done it, and he doesn’t have much time left to get it done.