Very few people in sports agree on who the true GOAT is, but it’s a conversation that’s seemingly never-ending. In NBA circles, it’s usually believed to be a three-way fight between Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant. But if you asked MJ, the man who put the NBA on the world map, he doesn’t agree with the debate altogether.
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Jordan doesn’t give credence to the topic, insisting that he’s never gotten too high or too low about it. He’s always shown indifference in the face of this controversial debate.
Why does Jordan do this? Because he wants to make sure he’s paying respect to the players who popularized the sport before him, just like he has done for players like James and Kobe.
“I never played against Oscar Robertson or Jerry West. Would’ve loved to, absolutely loved to. It’s just the competitor that I am. I actually learned from them, and we paved the roads to the Kobes and the LeBrons,” Jordan told the NBA on NBC.
“To me, the beauty of the game of basketball is that a player, after a previous player, has evolved the game further. But don’t then use that against the players that taught you the game or that you learned from.”
It makes a ton of sense. How can somebody discount a previous generation of basketball players when they were the ones who taught the next ones all of their tricks? After all, many fans say they saw a lot of Jordan’s game in Bryant. The Mamba even admitted to modeling some of his moves after MJ.
This doesn’t mean that Jordan wouldn’t want to play against James or Bryant in his prime, given the chance. But he knows that’s a thing we will never get to see. “Look, I would’ve loved to have played against LeBron or Kobe in my prime. I would love to have played against those guys. But we’ll never be able to know that,” he admitted.
Michael Jordan on the GOAT debate:
“The GOAT term is something I’ll never get high or low about. It just doesn’t exist for me.. We paved the way for Kobe and LeBron. The beauty of he game of basketball is a player after previous players have evolved the game further. But don’t… pic.twitter.com/7OCBGVOW8d
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) March 8, 2026
The Chicago Bulls legend concluded by talking about how comparing one generation to another created animosity. Because of that, he likes to stay out of it entirely and honor those who came before him, as well as admire the great players today.
“Part of the marketing, and part of the hype, and part of the things that try to elevate one generation above the other, I think it creates animosity. I have no animosity against today’s players. But you do have certain players who do have animosity because of the forgotten-ness of what their contribution has been to the game of basketball. It is what it is.”
Jordan went on to mention other great players who get left out of the GOAT discussion, like Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bill Russell. When he hears the topic come up, and those players go unmentioned, that’s where he gets lost in the conversation. It all goes back to his respect for those who came before him.
Jordan avoids the GOAT debate in his social circles. But he still respects that fans want to have the conversation and thinks that it can be healthy for the fabric of the game. He just thinks that at a certain point, it’s a circular conversation that can never conclude.
What’s crazy is that Jordan is right. The GOAT debate will never be settled in the NBA universe. It’s such a unique game where players take things from past athletes and add to them. It makes it hard to compare across generations. Maybe in the future someone will go head and shoulders above the rest. But for now, Jordan, James, and Bryant will be at the forefront of the discussion.
