“Nobody has more championships than him of the GOAT candidates” - Nick Wright claims Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had better career than Michael Jordan
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is among the greatest NBA players of all time, and Nick Wright believes he has a case to be the GOAT.
When listing the greatest NBA players of all, three names often pop up: Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James.
During a recent segment on the Dan Patrick Show, Wright threw his weight behind Abdul-Jabbar. Wright pointed out that Abdul-Jabbar may have the best resume of the top three.
"Nobody has more championships than him of the GOAT candidates. He has scored the most points, goals, or runs, whatever the sport is, of all the candidates. In fact, of everyone in history, and has the most league MVPs of everyone in history. It would not be controversial to say he should be in the discussion."
LeBron James will likely break Abdul-Jabbar's scoring record, but it will be difficult to break his MVP record. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6) has two more MVPs than James (4) and one more than Jordan (5).
Nick Wright believes Michael Jordan's peak was better than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
During the segment, Nick Wright also pointed out that while Michael Jordan's peak may have been higher than Abdul-Jabbar's, his overall achievements pale in comparison to the Lakers great.
"Jordan's pinnacle, his peak, one could argue was higher than anybody else's. However the second place on that list might be Shaquille O'Neal, so why is Shaquille O'Neal not in the top five, top six, top seven? He didn't do it long enough. Kareem has more seasons where he was a top five MVP vote-getter than Michael Jordan has seasons."
To bolster his argument, Nick Wright pointed to their amateur records.
"Michael Jordan was a very good college player, good enough that people said I'd rather have Sam Bowie. In high school, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went 79-2, and I'm told Michael Jordan got cut from his team. Now I'm sure it was a very good team he got cut from, but Kareem wasn't getting cut. I just think Kareem has the better basketball life than Michael Jordan."
While Jordan's pre-NBA career was somewhat successful, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's was on a different level. Abdul-Jabbar averaged 26.4 points per game, 10.7 field goals per game and 15.5 rebounds per game.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s varsity record at UCLA:
Years played: 3
National Championships: 3
Losses: 2 https://t.co/0m3NZZNzmJ
Abdul-Jabbar led one of the most dominant teams in college basketball history before his run of NBA dominance. Whether or not that is enough to make him the GOAT is something that fans can continue to debate.