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Here’s why LeBron James, not Michael Jordan, is the GOAT
Beyond the statistics, it’s a matter of ideology – one that pits activism and solidarity vs. nostalgia and delusion

LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers makes a lay up against the Indiana Pacers during the first quarter of the championship game of the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament at T-Mobile Arena on December 09, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers makes a lay up against the Indiana Pacers during the first quarter of the championship game of the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament at T-Mobile Arena on December 09, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The effects and limits of time have no meaning to the vampire. In Bram Stoker’s classic novel, Dracula describes how “only a few days” make up a century.

If he were not such a charitable man, it would seem appropriate to investigate whether LeBron James is a vampire. At 39 years old, in his 21st NBA season, he shows few signs of mortality. This season he averaged 25.7 points, 8.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds per game after playing 71 games in the 2024 season.

The negation of LeBron James is not related to sports, rather it is a cultural stain.

Decades for LeBron, like centuries for Dracula, pass in mere days. It doesn’t feel like too long ago that LeBron James was 18 years old, straight out of high school in his rookie season, and dominating on the court against players 10 to 15 years older. As Edward R. Ward, the author of “Life in the Valley of Death: Some Aspects of Race in Men’s Basketball in the Missouri Valley Conference, 1959-60 – 1963-64,” recently said when assessing James’ unprecedented run of uninterrupted achievement: “He’s been the best the longest.”

Over his 21 years in the NBA, he has become the all-time scoring leader, breaking Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s record, which NBA analysts long considered unbreakable, has entered the Top 5 in all time assists, is in the Top 30 for all-time rebounds, and has led three different teams to four championship titles, appearing in 10 finals throughout his career. At 6 foot 9, 250 pounds, he is one of the strongest players to hit the hardwood, but also, astonishingly, one of the fastest. In a game-saving block during Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals – one of the most famous and celebrated moments of his basketball life – he ran 20.1 miles per hour to prevent a member of the opposing team from making a layup.

James is statistically superior to any other player to ever wear an NBA uniform, with unprecedented achievements, and yet most of the sports commentariat, along with millions of fans on social media, are hostile to the notion that he is the greatest of all time (GOAT).

Don’t be like Mike
The most prevalent position against LeBron James as GOAT is that he’s led his teams to only four titles. Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless and other sports pundits trot out this number in the service of the most popular candidate for greatest NBA player of all time: Michael Jordan. According to conventional wisdom, Jordan leading the Chicago Bulls to six finals, and winning all six, closes the case.

Smith, Bayless and the chorus of Jordan worshipers act as if Jordan played only six seasons as a professional. Never do they mention the nine seasons that Jordan did not lead his respective teams to making the finals. His last two seasons, with the Washington Wizards, ended without even qualifying for the playoffs, and his teammates despised him so much that they refused to buy him a retirement gift.

The illogic of the Jordan partisans acts as a blacklight, making clear that what actually underlies the negation of LeBron James is not related to sports, rather it is a cultural stain.

Shelby Steele, the preeminent Black conservative intellectual, argues in his book about Barack Obama, “A Bound Man,” that for most of American history Black public figures, whether in politics or pop culture, performed one of two roles: bargainer or challenger. Citing Louis Armstrong as an example, Steele defines the bargainer as one who tells white America, “If you allow me to have a career, and amass wealth, I will not remind you of the shame of American racism.” Challengers, such as Miles Davis, proceed according to the presumption that American institutions are racist, and therefore, must meet an obligation to prove that they are acting according to egalitarian principles.

Michael Jordan, at his global peak of popularity in the 1990s, was the ultimate bargainer. No matter how egregious the injustice in the headlines – the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King, the rise of racial profiling against Black commuters, the increasingly inflammatory rhetoric of key Republicans figures, like Newt Gingrich and Pat Buchanan – “Air” Jordan