If there’s one NBA conversation that won’t go away, it’s the GOAT debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron James. It’s been raging for years, and it’s only getting more contentious as LeBron continues breaking records now in his 23rd season.
Advertisement
There are exceptions, of course, but where people stand on the issue usually comes down to when they were born. Gen Z is squarely in LeBron’s camp. He’s their GOAT, he’s the one they grew up watching. The older crowd, unsurprisingly, swears by MJ.
Every battle needs weaponry to win, but unfortunately for all the young LeBron fans out there, they’re bringing a knife to a gun fight, because they’ve never actually seen Jordan play. Maybe they’ve seen highlights, but that’s not nearly the same thing as watching him night to night, or experiencing first-hand the impact he had on not only basketball culture, but the world.
On last night’s episode of Nightcap, Shannon Sharpe and Tracy McGrady attempted to explain how larger-than-life Jordan really was. “He doesn’t seem real, T-Mac,” Sharpe said. “When I first laid eyes on this man, I was at the Super Bowl. This man was levitating. And I’m looking at him, and he’s probably thinking, ‘Man, Sterling Sharpe’s little brother, there’s something wrong with him.'”
McGrady concurred, and he brought it back to a time that he saw Jordan play. “I’m glad you said that,” he said, “and people really don’t understand. That aura is a real thing, bro. For real. His aura is like none other.”
“So I was 17 years old and this is when I announced that I was gonna go to the NBA. Chicago was playing the Atlanta Hawks. I go to the game, watch MJ and Pip and the Bulls do their thing that night. I go in the back after the game, and I’m waiting by the Chicago Bulls locker room … Rodman walked out, ‘Alright, cool, that’s Dennis Rodman right there,’ Pip walks out, ‘Alright,” he recalled.
“Bruh, MJ walks out of that locker room my dude. Naw, naw, it’s like he was glowing, bro. He had like this aura around him, I’m telling you … This is the golden era of basketball, that’s how I got to watch him, right? … He didn’t seem real,” McGrady explained.
McGrady’s description calls to mind the hilarious Chappelle’s Show skit when Charlie Murphy met Rick James for the first time. Sharpe is 57 years old, McGrady is 46, and they still venerate MJ like this all these years later.
That’s why ‘Be Like Mike’ was such a successful ad campaign, because everybody wanted to be like Michael Jordan. He was like a god amongst men, and he still emits that same aura today.
LeBron is larger than life in his own way, so the GOAT debate shouldn’t be settled on this alone. But any basketball fan who didn’t get to see Jordan during his playing days missed out, and there’s not much way to make them understand.
Hearing Sharpe and McGrady talk, it seems unbelievable, but it’s true. There’s never been someone like Michael Jordan, and there probably never will be.
