NBA GOAT Debate: Russell, Jabbar, Jordan and James rep distinct eras

NBA GOAT Debate: Bill Russell, Kareen Abdul Jabbar, Michael Jordan and LeBron James represent an unbroken chain back to 1956

The airwaves are full of opinions these days on the great NBA GOAT debate. Not since Michael Jordan became the consensus GOAT some time in the mid-to-late 90’s has this topic been so hot.

LeBron has earned a rightful place in the conversation with undeniably dominant play on the way to eight consecutive trips to the NBA Finals.

A thorough review of credentials reveals there are exactly three other reasonable nominations. Many other all-time great players, but exactly four in the GOAT debate.

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It is ok to champion the greatest champion Bill Russell. Eleven rings can’t be ignored.

It is also perfectly fine to offer Kareem. The all-time leading scorer, six-time MVP, six-time NBA champion, and three-time NCAA champion deserves serious consideration.

Obviously, we will accept Michael Jordan as a possible answer.

And, as pointed out earlier, LeBron rounds out the field. Anyone who still does not admit King James is a serious contender for the GOAT crown simply has an anti-LeBron agenda. Haters gonna hate.

So now you expect me to offer my choice among this fab four? Sorry to disappoint you. That is not the point of this post.

The point here is to point out that the four members of this exclusive club represent incredibly distinct eras. The alignment of their careers is so amazing it borders on spooky. This GOAT topic is considered so often and so intensely, yet this fact continues to get missed.

Stop for a second and look at the career spans of the hoop Mount Rushmore.

Russell entered the NBA in 1956. Over the next 13 years, the Celtics dominated and he was the consummate team player in the consummate team sport.

Russell exits the NBA hardwood after winning the title in May 1969. Just a couple of months later Kareem, then Lew Alcindor, comes onto hardwood as a professional for the first time. No overlap. No empty space between the two. Their careers abut perfectly.

Kareem plays for two decades, calling it quits after being swept by the Bad Boy Pistons in 1989.

By that time Michael Jordan had been in the league for half a decade. I can explain this overlap to fit into my argument in a few ways.

First, Kareem played a very long time. Longer than the basketball gods expected. Second, it took Michael a few years, including a season lost to injury, before he emerged as the best player in the league.

Finally, we didn’t see a passing of the I-was-the-best player-of-my-era-now-you-are-the-best-of-your’s torch because while that torch was being secretly passed, we were in the midst of a very powerful illusion. We were all seduced into believing that Magic and Larry playing concurrently was the GOAT debate to be having. We didn’t yet understand that real GOAT candidates don’t play at the same time. They don’t overlap.

With a couple of years of perspective and after six Bulls championships, we came to see the error of our ways. Even the staunchest Bird and Magic supporters had to concede Michael was better. Russell and Jabbar backers did not have to concede. Their arguments were not invalidated by Jordan. Great as he was, Jordan didn’t win more championships, or dominate more clearly than the two big men we are allowed to consider.

Michael retired after ring No. 6 in 1998. He then came back to play a couple of non-descript seasons with the Wizards. Many wonder why he did that. I am now prepared to offer the theory that he un-retired that second time (the first un-retirement came when he gave up baseball in 1995) specifically to keep a GOAT in the league until the young king arrived.

Jordan finally retired (again) in spring 2003. We now know that in the NBA, GOAT’s don’t leave us without a successor. The King was drafted in June 2003 and took the floor in the fall of that year to carry on the mantle passed from Jordan. Another perfect abutting of careers!

It seems clear that since Russell joined the Celtics in fall 1956, there has never been a lapse in the lineage of GOAT NBA players. That is an unbroken run of 62 years and counting! 4 players over 62 years.

No other league has perfectly defined eras of this sort.

In the NFL, you can say Jim Brown, or Joe Montana, or Lawrence Taylor or Tom Brady is the GOAT. Maybe Jerry Rice or Payton Manning too. Whomever you include, this is an ugly timeline. There is a decade between Brown and Montana. Then, Montana, Taylor and Rice all played at the same time. Then, there is another gap before Manning and Brady come into view.

In baseball, it is clearly not an unbroken chain of GOAT candidates dating back to Babe Ruth.

In hockey, I am pretty sure everyone besides a few Beantown/Bobby Orr homers believe Gretzky is the greatest.

Ultimately, We are left to draw these conclusions from the great NBA GOAT debate:

1. This oddity, this beautiful unbroken chain of Russell-Jabbar-Jordan-James, is further evidence that basketball is the greatest sport.
2. Another GOAT candidate will emerge soon, but not before LeBron is in full descent. I, for one, cannot wait to meet the next true GOAT candidate.