Michael Jordan’s six championships are the biggest hurdle for LeBron James to achieve the GOAT status.
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The discussion about the greatest of all time in any sport is one thing with no end to it. Everyone has their own favourites and that too from different eras, which makes it far more difficult to compare them, keeping in mind the rule changes in that particular sport over the years.
Basketball, for one, has seen a lot of change since it came to fame with the NBA around the 1950s. Since then, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James have made the best cases for the GOAT debates.
Going Championship and legacy-wise, there is no beating the Celtics’ legend Russell who won 11 rings in his 13-year career. Dominance-wise, Wilt could be it. The ease with Magic played when it was arguably the toughest time to be an NBA player and win a championship and still won five in just 13 years, makes the case for him as well.
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And then MJ came along and took over that debate like never before and established himself as the least arguable GOAT with 6 Championships in a 15-year career averaging the most points per game in NBA history.
But are championships enough to determine the best? A 7x NBA champ believes otherwise.
Big Shot Bob doesn’t believe Lebron James needs 6 Championships to surpass Michael Jordan as GOAT
Robert Horry might arguably be the best role player in basketball history. Popular by ‘Big Shot Bob’ he helped multiple teams win more than one championship in the 90s and 2000s including Hakeem Olajuwon’s Rockets, Kobe and Shaq’s Lakers, and Tim Duncan’s Spurs.
If anyone, this man is entitled to have a say if purely winning championships can determine greatness. The former Lakers forward have on separate occasions said that championship does not determine a player’s greatness because it is a team sport and that LeBron did not need to cross Jordan’s 6 chips to be the GOAT. In fact, he feels the argument is idiotic.
“It’s a team sport”
– 7x Champion Robert Horry on if LeBron needs to pass MJ on ring count pic.twitter.com/Yn13zWBPE0
— 🤴🏾⁶ (@JP3Visualz) August 28, 2022
Since then, The King, having completed 19 years in the NBA, has made 5 more Finals appearances and has won another ring, making it 4/10. That’s not so impressive a record compared to others on the list. But he faced some of the greatest and toughest teams of all time since his debut in 2003, including a Warriors’ dynasty — four times in the Finals.
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But then Jordan’s 5 MVPs, 6 Finals MVPs, 10x scoring titles and 9x All-Defensive First Team selections in a shorter time would make you think he was better.
However, Magic and Russell will then have better cases. Both of them did even better, playing two years less than MJ. This really is, never-ending.
