That was me^

I think the Lebron haters are the younger versions of the Kobe haters?

I was abit of a Kobe hater but now I appreciate how much of a great player he really is/was.

Lebron haters - dont be salty and miss out on some of the best basketball you will ever witness.

He has won 2 rings on a stacked team in a weak league. Great player...YES. Best of all time......let's discuss that when he has finished. If he blows a knee next year and never plays again...... Right now he is the best player in the world (yes Ingles better than Harden). But the greatest of all time after 2 championships??? Put the crack pipe down guys...

He is not the GOAT, I'm not hating I'm being honest

You need to stop living in the moment, the same thing happened with Kobe when he was winning.

Jordan is the GOAT, talk to me in 5 years, then I will reconsider LeBron's position with a greater body of work.

Steve Nash has 2 MVP's this doesnt make him a top PG of all time. Playing in a different (softer) style of league makes a huge impact in my mind.

Jordan spoilt us because he was that greatest player AND had the killer closer instinct.

LeBron is a different sort of great player, but he is not Jordan, the way that Magic and Bird are not Jordan

I think people that Hate the Heat direct that hate towards LBJ.

I hate the Heat. Don't like the way they conduct themselves.

But LBJ is ON TRACK to be the greatest player that ever lived.

Stats-wise he is an absolute freak.

If he's not a GOAT, then he's definitely a BOAT (best of all time). To be clear, he's the MDOAT (most dominant of all time). I still can't believe he holds the record for PPGIGSH.

Shocking acronym...

@Sebastian ... Weak League?

I think most people would agree he isnt the greatest of all time just yet ... but he's ahead of where MJ was at the same point in his career so he's on his way.

I understand the comparison but it's impossible to compare two players from different eras. Jordan had to deal with hand checking but he had the favorable illegal defense rules which opened up the floor and made it much easier to get to the basket. Can't we just appreciate both guys for being great in their respective eras?

LeBron at the same age as Jordan as more championships, MVPs and finals MVPS.

Not to mention the scoring and triple double records.

He's well on track to surpass him.

Not a fair comparison SpeedwagonUncle - After 10 seasons in the NBA, LeBron has one more MVP award that MJ did, but one less championship and one less finals MVP award.

Not that any of this really matters. It is simply impossible to compare the two and say that one is/was better than the other.

Why can't people just enjoy greatness of the the best player currently playing the game without the need to constantly compare.

I heard Steve Kerr say on a podcast recently that he doubts whether Miami will be able to make the finals next season. He says the effort it takes to make three finals in a row takes so much out of the players, that they simply run out of steam eventually. Will be interesting to see if that runs true with Miami.

That "game 7" stat floating around is extremely misleading. How do we know that the reason why Lebron has gone to more game 7s, and subsequently scored more, is because he took his foot off for a few games in the series, something Jordan rarely did.

Situation, you're reading too much into it. It's a standalone stat showing how he comes up big when absolutely needed.

One of the greatest players of all time. Is still awaiting a few more rings to challenge Kobe/Jordan/Magic/Bird... But come on. You need only to see the guy play to know he is the greatest player in the game today

I'm not reading too much in to it. Just saying its not as telling as what Heat fans want it to be.

You can't judge until his career is nearer completion. Like Vart said there is so much wear and tear on players who keep going deep into the playoffs. Jordan's record is so phenomenal because he won three in a row TWICE! The only other player to so utterly dominate his era was Russell with 8 in a row (11 in 13).

Lebron has even made comments in the past year indicating that he understands how difficult it is to win a title. So many things can go wrong that you can't control. So lets see how the next 4 years unfold before we start proclaiming him the GOAT.

Lets see how his baseball career goes first too!

I highly highly doubt he wins 4 more league MVP's with voter fatigue likely to occur soon as well as superstars like Durant, Dwight, Harden, Chris Paul, Paul George and Wiggins set to challenge him in the next 5-8 years

He is certainly entering the conversation now with these type of performances. It's a fair endorsement when Magic himself annoints him as someone who could be GOAT!

Ingles 13 ^^^ couldnt help himself with the above post & slip Harden in to the names above. But Ingles 13 isnt on the Harden bandwagon...

When LBJ builds a team and takes them to a championship I will start to consider him a runner up for GOAT...oh wait, he skipped that part and went to a highly stacked team..yeh that makes him great LOL

"he got Pippen, then the rest changed every year between Rodman, Armstrong, Cartright, Paxson, whoever)"

Thats building a team around him moron.

Agree with Beantown here, Bill Russell's 11 rings in 13 years with 12 NBA All Star appearances and 5 MVP's looks a lot like GOAT material to me...

If we're talking about clutch stats, how many times has MJ lost in the finals??

Zero

The Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award (formerly known as the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award)

Says something...

LBJ just overtook MJ on the all-time NBA points ladder, moving into 4th

GOAT isn't even in the playoffs.

To think some people got sucked into thinking LeBron was the GOAT last year.

Never was nor will be in Jordan's league.

*waits for outrage*

If LBJ continues as he's going ...
- within 1 year he will likely move into 3rd
- within 3 years he will likely move into 2nd
- within 4 years he will likely move into 1st
- within 5 years he will likely become the first 40,000 point man
- within 10 years he could even become the first 50,000 point man

At what point does he deserve to be considered as the GOAT?

Only 118 more games for a guy who's not even supposed to be a scorer is not bad!

It shouldn't be GOAT, it's more accurate to call it GOHT, greatest of his time. Funny how most things we consider the best, from music to movies to sport, it's what we grew up with that we consider superior.

Wilt Chamberlain was the greatest player if you look at particular individual seasons, I mean he averaged 50pts 25rebs in a season ffs, then led the league in assists for a season just to prove a point.

Kareem then had all the people who grew up in his generation saying MJ will never overtake him, he's a guard, the big man still affects the game most.

Now it's just been passed down to people aged 35-50 who now say Lebron can't pass Jordan, 6-0 in the finals.

In 10 years time if someone like Zion becomes otherworldly and is the player of his generation people wont be comparing him to Wilt, Kareem or MJ, it will be Lebron, because all the kids who are currently under the age of 20 now only saw Lebron, and the cycle will continue.

Wilt & Kareem get dismissed in GOAT talks (correctly IMO) because they (especially Wilt) played in a semi-pro era with little competition. Wilt at 7'1" was a giant in his era but if matched against say a Shaq would've got destroyed.

Kareem had more game than Wilt but I think Hakeem was a better more rounded centre and I wouldn't make an argument for Hakeem as the GOAT because I saw prime MJ and then prime LeBron.

Jordan was 6-0 in the Finals he was the best offensively we've seen and also great defensively far better than LeBron who also is held back by his poor Finals record 3-6.