By: Courtlandt Griffin, NewWave Sports
As fans we are subjected to a lot of arguments about basketball....what team is the favorite for this year’s title?.....or is the MVP really the Most. Valuable? But, the one that is tossed around more than any is who is the GOAT? Many say Michael Jordan, there are some that will say Lebron James, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, and countless others. The deciding factor for many of these names is championship rings, the holy grail of basketball as many would have you believe, but my question is....do rings really matter when determining the GOAT?
The first time I found myself in an argument about who I thought was the greatest of all time, I was in the barbershop. A guy was talking about how Jordan’s 6 rings were the “Golden Standard” for determining greatness. I threw out why I felt, at the time, that Magic was a better player and consequently the GOAT....and he went on to say “If it ain’t 6, it don’t make sense.” From then on I went on to find out how rings became the standard for greatness.
I take you to April 20, 1986 where a young Michael Jordan scored 63 points against arguably the best team in the NBA, the Boston Celtics.
After that game Larry Bird said “He is the most exciting, awesome player in the game today. I think it’s just God disguised as Michael Jordan.” From there it was implanted that this young man was good and quite possibly the best the league had to offer! Five years later Michael Jordan burst on to the scene to win his first ring, on the way to a three-peat. After said three-peat, Michael would be considered the Greatest Player the league had ever seen, but was he? At the time Jordan only had three rings, Magic had five, Kareem six. Jordan eventually retired, and came back to win three more and cement his legacy for the next two decades.
Now that we have set the tone, let’s look into how the ring argument was blown up to protect a legacy.
In the 90’s Basketball was arguably at its most competitive state, with teams and players laying it all out to win! News and Sports coverage networks flashed images of Jordan across the screens of millions of viewers nightly. Jordan took pictures flaunting his six championship rings, and creating the mystique of the GOAT.
Fast forward to today, and the argument has come to a head with players like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and others dominating the NBA. Even with them being legends in their own right, the standard is still 6 rings. Even with players like Bill Russell (11), Kareem Abdul-Jabar (6), and Robert Horry (7) having more.
But, even with that being said teams win championships, the banner is hung in the rafters with the team’s name, and everyone gets a ring. So how should the GOAT be determined?
INDIVIDUAL ACCOLADES! That’s right, I feel that the individual player’s impact, statistical prowess, and accomplishments should weigh more than the team accomplishment of a championship. I mean let’s look at the impact of each of whom I think the conversation should be between:
MIchael Jordan: 5x MVP, 6x Finals MVP, 1x DPOY, 14x Allstar, 3x Allstar MVP, 10x All-NBA Team, 2x Gold Medalist, 32292 points , 6672 rebounds, and 5633 assists.
Lebron James: 4x MVP, 3x Finals MVP, 14x Allstar, 3x Allstar MVP, 12x All-NBA Team, 2x Gold Metalist, 31038 points*, 8415 rebounds, and 8208 assists.
Magic Johnson: 3x MVP, 3x Finals MVP, 12x Allstar, 2x Allstar MVP, 9x All-NBA Team, 2x Gold Medalist, 17707 points, 6559 rebounds, and 10141 assists.
Kareem Abdul-Jabar: 6x MVP, 2x Finals MVP, 19x Allstar, 15x All-NBA Team, 38387 points, 17440 rebounds, and 5660 assists.
When you look at it this way the race or argument for who the GOAT is is way closer. Given one of the players listed is still playing this argument could be even more close, or even further apart in a couple of years.
The whole point is that rings aren’t as important as analyst, commentators, and fans want to make them. Impact, personal accomplishments, and basketball acumen are what a player should be rated on in the quest to be the GOAT.
If you feel there is another criteria feel free to mention it, I’d love to hear your take on this age old conversation. Thank you for reading...until next time!
**Basketball-Reference.com used as source for stats.
***wikipedia.com for individual awards numbers.
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