"There's no disrespect to it" - Ex-NBA coach backs Michael Jordan's GOAT status referencing "eye test" for validation
While Michael Jordan and LeBron James have been the two players most commonly involved in the NBA GOAT debate in recent years, former NBA champion turned Coach of the Year Avery Johnson believes that the title belongs to Jordan. Ahead of James' 22nd year in the league, many fans believe that he has surpassed Jordan in the GOAT debate.
With his unparalleled longevity in the league, which has allowed him to continue to play over 30 minutes per game, James has continued to cement his place in NBA history. After surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record, James became the first player in NBA history to eclipse 40,000 points in March.
Despite James' continued production, and the fact that he's shown few signs of slowing down as he approaches 40, Avery Johnson believes the title of Greatest of All Time belongs to Michael Jordan.
This week, the 2009 Coach of the Year and 1999 NBA Champion, on former NBA coach Mark Jackson's podcast, The Mark Jackson Show, shared his thoughts on the NBA GOAT debate.
"We can really peel back all of the numbers. You can even go with the eye test, but everybody else is a distant second behind Mike. And there's no disrespect to it.”
Looking at how the NBA community views the Michael Jordan-LeBron James GOAT debate
In addition to Avery Johnson, several other NBA legends have also weighed in on the NBA GOAT debate in the wake of LeBron James and Team USA's gold medal win in France at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
During an interview with MLive, two-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas weighed in on the GOAT debate. Although Thomas and Jordan have a longstanding beef, he explained that he believes the greatest NBA player of all time is LeBron James, not Michael Jordan:
"When you talk about passing, scoring, rebounding, we've never had a player in the NBA that has touched every statistical category and leads in some of these statistical categories that we're talking about. There's never been another player like him."
In an interview with Nick Hamilton, LA legend and Hall of Famer Magic Johnson also touched on the GOAT debate. While he didn't pick a side in the Michael Jordan-LeBron James debate, Johnson argued that Kobe Bryant deserves to be in the debate for the greatest player of all time.
Interestingly enough, though, despite the talk of James surpassing Jordan, HoopsHype notably recorded 100 players' votes for the greatest player of all time with Jordan receiving 49 of the 100 votes, LeBron James receiving 37 and Kobe Bryant receiving nine.
While James is still in pursuit of his fifth NBA title, it's clear that the GOAT debate is far from over.