What about all the times he didn't make the finals? People always bring up 6-0 and that's so cringe to me cuz y'all are so proud of 6-0 but forget Lebron is 4-6. Anybody who knows math should understand 4-6 is better than 6-0 simply because he made the Finals 4 more times. The other thing that's just backwards is Lebron getting mocked for leaving his comfort zone and creating his own team to win. That's like making fun of Bill Gates for becoming a self made billionaire and praising Patrick Fertita for being a trust fund baby. MJ was lucky his GM Krause gifted him everything, HOF GM and teammates. Lebron wasn't as lucky, if he didn't love winning so much he'd be another Damian Lillard. But somehow it's Lebron fault he couldn't win by himself when MJ is the exact same thing while playing in a weaker league.
Refresh my memory but did MJ beat the Pistons by himself or did that only happen when he got Pippen and Phil Jackson? Getting good teammates like MJ disqualifies Lebron what about retiring 3 times? At least Lebron played and grinded in the NBA for over 20 yrs, sacrificing body and soul and logging the most playoff mins in NBA history. MJ quit multiple times and kept taking breaks how come that doesn't disqualify him? OK and as the supposed goat how come MJ only made the finals 6 times? At least Lebron made the finals 10 times almost double MJ. Crazy you slam LBJ for not making finals every year but Michael Baseball gets a free pass. That's your typical MJ die hard for you, no objectivity at all.
When you are talking about greatest of all time, it's absolutely fine to split hairs like that. Leaving for Miami is absolutely something you can point to, to dock points from Lebron, that took him out of the goat conversation for me. Similarly, winning the one in Cleveland against Golden State put him back into the 2nd best of all time conversation for me. Longevity also isn't a winning argument for me. What Lebron has done with his body for this long is an incredible accomplishment, but that doesn't mean he is better, its just a different accomplishment. Also, in my view, Lebron always played in a historically weak eastern conference. Quantity of finals appearance means less to me.
Anyone who has the work ethic to make it to the NBA has my respect. But Cartwright had one season where he averaged that and the rest of his career he was a role player for a reason. I had no way of knowing he was your brother in law.
I get your point that it is impossible to compare team composition, but that is a scarecrow argument. Magic had two baskets to shoot at. One was a ten foot rim and another was a tall guy who would hang out 12 feet from the basket and would score automatically with a hook shot. Mchale was the kind of player who had that turnaround where you could just give him a basketball in the post and he would score more often than not. Pippen was never that guy. He had lots of opportunities to be the person in the fourth quarter to get the ball and score, but he never had that "go-to" move. And I loved watching Pippen play. But the innitial question was asking why Jordan is generally viewed as the greatest ever. Once again, Jordan changed the narrative that you couldn't win a championship with a shorter guy taking the majority of the shots. It widened the interest in the game because basketball was no longer viewed as just a sport for tall guys. I'm not detracting from what anyone else did. But Jordan was different, and that was how he did it.
He actually had two seasons of 20ppg and I respect all players who decide to take a backseat for betterment of team, as others have done after him like a Bosh/Love etc Every player has a role, Jordan role was superstar/scorer, some roles are bigger than others Cartwright had a bigger scoring ''role'' prior to joining Bulls then his main focus was more interior D/boards/toughness, along with H Grant, then later that role went to Rodman in second 3peat I had no way knowing you would think stating something that actually happened could be mistaken for some player being my bro in law damn homey, in high school you was the man homey, what the F happened to you?
He actually had two seasons of 20ppg and I respect all players who decide to take a backseat for betterment of team, as others have done after him like a Bosh/Love etc Every player has a role, Jordan role was superstar/scorer, some roles are bigger than others Cartwright had a bigger scoring ''role'' prior to joining Bulls then his main focus was more interior D/boards/toughness, along with H Grant, then later that role went to Rodman in second 3peat I had no way knowing you would think stating something that actually happened could be mistaken for some player being my bro in law damn homey, in high school you was the man homey, what the F happened to you? Jordan is viewed as the media hyped GOAT because he made Corp America a whole lot of $$, which the biz is all about profit$, and during that 90s run Jordan/Bulls accounted for like 90% of leagues revenue, so his game was lethal and his actual 6'4''' height was more in line with the average fan in attendance than a 7footer Him winning in his 7th season helped because prior to that media labeled him a ball hog who they didn't think could win being lead dog SG so he won 6 titles in 15 seasons and they created a new narrative for him with the 6 Finals ships going undefeated, and making it seem like he only played 6 seasons and dipped off into the sunset there is nothing wrong in selecting him as your GOAT, but he is flawed as others and had to take his lumps to reach the level of a NBA champ Its why Pippen deserves his flowers because Jordan didn't get out of first round prior to him joining the Bulls, and Pippen was a jack of all trades and arguably a top 3 defender all time, Pippen made a bunch of timely key baskets in 4th qtr/crunchtime during their 6 yr title run (especially first 3peat), that was his go to move
Kukoc is a smart dude....in a nutshell, if you are smart enough, you do not compare players from different times.
And Kukoc recognizes the difference between best and greatest. For me, for what he did in his time, Bill Russell is easily the greatest ever. It's not even close. But you can't compare his skills to Hakeem's or even Wilt's much less Jokic's skills.
Being attracted to women old enough to be your mother deserves a letter in the LGBT thing. Michael Jordan probably hit that, too.
"How come he only made the finals six times"??? Obviously you're clueless. To make the Finals they had to get by Boston and Detroit. Both of these teams would DESTROY any team that LeBron ever played for.
In the 80s MJ was still a young player on a team that just wasnt that good… Asking a young MJ to beat those legendary Celtics and Pistons team is a very tall task. You really think any other player in MJs situation was going to beat those teams?
You asked in a vacuum, so I'll answer in a vacuum. Magic won the chip in year 2. Bird won in year 3. If there's an undisputed GOAT above these guys then sure that's a reasonable expectation for his timeline. But lets forget those accelerated timelines and look at Jordan's: 1984/85 MJ year 1 - Loses to Milwaukee 1985/86 MJ year 2 - Loses to Celtics 1986/87 MJ year 3 - Loses to Celtics 1987/88 MJ year 4 - Loses to Pistons 1988/89 MJ year 5 - Loses to Pistons He had 5 chances. Not 1, 2 or even 3. He went 0/5 until these guys aged and Pippen elevated to ATG level.
