Michael Jordan is a man about whom superlatives aren’t enough to wax lyrical. The man inspired generations of basketball players and continues to do so even today. With the impact he’s had on the sport, it’s only fair to call him the GOAT.
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The NBA thought so too, and hence they named their revamped MVP trophy after him. The other trophies resemble the players they were based on, but not the MVP trophy. If it did, it would look like the Air Jordan logo or the shot from the 1998 finals, not like a generic man doing a layup.
And that is for good reason—because Michael hates the idea of having an MVP trophy based on him. As competitive and self-centered as MJ was, he did not stoop so low as to be narcissistic. Many people in the sporting world are cocky but never humble enough to offer praise to their peers.
That state of mind is reserved for a select few—Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant to name a few.
He believes that the winner of the MVP trophy should see themselves in the trophy, not Jordan. That motivates you to become the best; you always dream of becoming a poster on some young kid’s wall.
Has the NBA chosen the right man to represent the MVP Trophy?
The answer to that question is a resounding yes. One flip of the record book should show you exactly how dominant Michael Jordan was. Records that make no sense even today have his name written all over them. There has never been a guard who could do it as well on both ends of the floor.
One could argue about having Larry Bird for the trophy, but he’s already the trophy for the Eastern Conference Finals MVP. LeBron James? He’s still playing! Imagine him winning a trophy with his face on it. How vain!
Maybe someday after he retires, the NBA will launch a new award just for him. The Longevity Award goes to someone who’s played for two decades at the highest level without dropping even the slightest in output.
If Michael Jordan does not want to be the GOAT, then who is?
There will never be a definitive answer to the question of who is the GOAT. To people in the 1960s, the contest was between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. Kobe Bryant has to be the choice of people who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s.
Nobody is above LeBron James in the eyes of today’s youth. But who is the best of them all? It would be disrespectful, as Michael so eloquently states, to elevate one over the other—they’ve never played each other. Some of them are, but not all at the same time, in their prime.
That could only happen in a video game. Until there comes a time when all these players play together, the GOAT shall remain as one entity: basketball.
