“Michael Jordan is not the ‘GOAT’, he’s only the best player of the 1990s”: When Pistons legend, John Salley, refused to acknowledge Jordan as the greatest

Michael Jordan is merely the best player of the 1990s but is not the greatest player of all time, according to John Salley. 

“Michael Jordan, by acclamation, is the greatest player of all time.” This is what the official NBA website says about the Chicago Bulls legend. The league themselves recognize the worldwide notoriety that Jordan possesses in the GOAT discussion and yet, there are a bevy of naysayers that still believe him not to be the greatest. 

While Michael Jordan is the leading candidate for being labelled as the greatest player in NBA history, he certainly isn’t the only one. The fact that there are other candidates that vary in terms of accomplishments should be telling of just how many different aspects of the game are valued by fans and the media.

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Championships, MVPs, scoring titles, regular season numbers, longevity, win-loss ratio, influence over the game; these are all things that could be the number one aspect of what makes a GOAT for an individual and they all have different answers. 

The reason as to why Michael Jordan is the leading name in the discussion is because he checks all of these boxes in more than just a satisfactory way. 

Michael Jordan isn’t the GOAT, according to John Salley. 

Despite having faced 5 different teams in the NBA Finals, the most famous opponent Michael Jordan had in his career was against the Detroit Pistons. The hatred that the Bulls had for the Pistons and vice versa is one that is present even to this day.

Also read: “I took offense to me being compared to Clyde Drexler”: When Michael Jordan couldn’t stand the comparisons between himself and the Blazers guard

John Salley, who was a part of the ‘Bad Boy’ Pistons and was one of the most notorious on the squad for being someone who roughhoused the Bulls, once said that he didn’t believe MJ was the greatest of all time. 

In Salley’s eyes, Jordan was merely the best player of the 1990s. Other than that, he would actually have Julius Erving over him in the all-time rankings.

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While Jordan himself looked up to Dr. J and asked him for advice on stuff ranging from basketball tips to financial wisdom, it’s quite obvious that the 6x champ and 5x MVP surpassed his mentor in all-time rankings.