DA says Shaq isn't in the GOAT conversation because he doesn't have 5 rings but LeBron doesn't have 5 rings...
The goalposts are constantly on the move.
First of all, the idea of GOAT has always been silly to me. Not only is it super subjective and impossible to prove, it’s just a lame acronym people have adopted because they think it sounds “cool”.
But a more proper and fitting term should be something like “greatest to date”. Because the former doesn’t allow for the future, as at some point others come along to take that title away. But I digress.
One of the things that always irks me WRT a “greatest” discussion is that most don’t apply consistent logic to it.
For example, the mainstream media bestows the “GOAT” monicker to Tom Brady in football because he’s the QB that’s been on the most championship teams. However that same logic doesn’t seem to apply to basketball where Bill Russell was on nearly twice as many championship teams as the guys most often referred to as “GOAT” in Michael Jordan. And now you have some fools lobbying for a player with 7 less titles than Russell’s Celtics and 2 less titles than Jordan’s Bulls.
How does that make any sense?
Furthermore, in the case of basketball, one or two players have a FAR greater impact on team success than in football.
Circling back to what you quoted, it’s just more of the same flawed and inconsistent logic.
If anything, it should be basketball where “most titles” carries more weight, not football.
Instead, the mainstream media and fans alike treat championships in team sports like they’re singles tennis or golf. They are anything but.
**EDIT: Lastly, before anyone hits back with “LBJ and Brady are career leaders in scoring, wins, or whatever other categories which also adds to their claim for GOAT”. Let me state this.
Had Jim Brown or Barry Sanders not retired early, they’d likely be the all-time leaders in various stats too. But they didn’t and therefore career stats aren’t the best gauge because the number of games played aren’t the same. While players like Brady, Jabbar, and LBJ can be applauded for playing so long and for being productive for so long, it doesn’t tell the entire story.
For example, with eras being drastically different in many ways, a player like Joe Montana didn’t have the opportunity to play 20+ years due to the physicality that was permitted during his time. Some NBA players played during a time when there wasn’t even a 3pt line. And others played with a 3pt line but during an era where taking a quick 28 foot three in transition would get them benched by their coach (who had much more power over players at the time).
Things aren’t close to equal. Players today are able to play longer and be more productive for longer. Player safety is one reason, fitness and technology is another. We even see it in tennis where men and women are able to compete and win championships at ages when their predecessors were long retired because it used to be a “young persons sport”.
IMO, it’s actually more amazing that Abdul-Jabbar accomplished his scoring feat in essentially the same amount of time as LBJ but with only ONE 3 point FG made. Don’t even get me started on Wilt’s greatness.
One day the NBA may very well institute a 4-point line and someone will break the current scoring record and we’ll be saying the same thing.
Things are just drastically different when it comes to career production.
