The surest way to get a basketball fan talking is to ask them for their opinion on the greatest player of all time debate. Who is it: Michael Jordan or LeBron James? Both sides have plenty of ammunition to make their case, but in the end, it’s never really been an apples to apples comparison since the two played in different eras and didn’t get to settle the debate on the court.
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Fans are certainly split on the issue, but what’s interesting is that actual NBA players can’t agree on it either. The factions mostly split along generational lines, with the old heads siding with MJ and Gen Z going for LeBron, but that’s not always the case.
Take Iman Shumpert, who actually played with LeBron for four years on the Cavs. Shumpert retired from the NBA five years ago, and he appeared on the most recent episode of Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe to discuss, in part, his feelings on the GOAT debate.
Considering that he’s only 35, plus the fact that he actually won a championship as LeBron’s teammate, it’s shocking that when push comes to shove, he’s going with MJ, and he even told that to the Lakers star’s face.
“He laughed,” Shumpert said of LeBron’s response. “He knew I was gonna say it, though. He know that. Even though he is the great one, he know one, I’m a Chicago kid, you know what I’m saying? Two, how LeBron at the end of the game can pass to somebody, if it was my team I wouldn’t do that.
“I’m gonna take the DNA of Mike,” he continued. “That’s what I grew up watching, that’s the way I like the game played, so it’s like to see LeBron defer sometimes and do certain stuff, that’s why I put him over. Plus Mike never lost in a championship, so that’s why. But as far as breaking records and accolades and the rest of this s***, it’s like no, I’ve been giving Bron his props,” he confessed.
It would be easy to point out that Jordan deferred at the ends of games sometimes, too, most notably when he passed it off to John Paxson in the 1993 Finals or Steve Kerr in the 1997 Finals. As far as Shumpert’s last point goes, there’s no arguing with that. Jordan was a perfect 6-0 with a title on the line, while LeBron has gotten more bites at the apple but has come up short six out of 10 times.
Shumpert did make two outstanding points. For one, he showed why it’s silly to even compare these two guys at all when he praised LeBron for being like an all-knowing basketball supercomputer.
“He is ChatGPT of the NBA, bro,” he said of his former teammate. “You can ask him anything, he know. He know the coaches, he know the assistant coaches, he know the player development … He is really programmed for this.”
Shumpert’s second point is that the GOAT debate comes down to personal preference and lived experience in the end. We’re all at our most impressionable at a young age, so the music and movies from that time of our lives have a more profound impact than what we experience in adulthood. The same is true for our sports heroes.
“How you gonna do that to me? How you gonna tell my childhood self I’m wrong?” he asked.
“Like n****, Mike saved my life a couple times as far as I’m concerned. The world was ending and then Michael Jordan put on a f****** cape and we beat the Jazz, what the f*** is wrong with you? Like my house was burning down and Mike went out there and beat the Lakers in ’91, like what are you talking about?” Shumpert explained.
Shumpert is right. How can you argue with that? But by the same token, there are kids who grew up who revered LeBron in the same way, and you can’t tell them they’re wrong, either.
Shumpert’s discussion with Sharpe was a fun one, especially since Shay Shay is such an ardent LeBron supporter himself.
