Los Angeles Lakers: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the true deserving GOAT

The greatest basketball player of all-time debate and spurn into Chicago Bulls legend, Michael Jordan, vs. Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, with many of the younger generation taking James’ side while seemingly everyone else takes Michael Jordan’s side.

While you can argue it for hours on end, barring some kind of late, miracle run where LeBron dominates another five years and ends up with 7-8 rings, Michael Jordan is still going to be considered the GOAT, with LeBron being many peoples’ 1B.

In reality, this discussion does not even matter, as it is completely subjective and they have not (yet) developed a stat that could encompass enough of the game of basketball to make that distinction.

As pointless as it can seem, I still think one NBA legend is unjustifiably left out of the greatest of all-time discussion when you can easily make the case that he is the greatest of all-time.

The greatest basketball player of all-time is Los Angeles Lakers legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, not Michael Jordan or LeBron James.

I was not alive when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played basketball, a lot of people who have recently been attached to the league weren’t, and there simply was not as coverage and not as much readily available footage as nowadays and even when Jordan played.

However, when looking at his accomplishments compared to Michael Jordan and LeBron James, it is really hard to make the case against Kareem, no matter what you value in a superstar player.

Perhaps you value pure statistics — Kareem has them beat. He is the all-time leader in points, field goals and minutes played. He is second all-time in rebounds and blocks as well. Jordan is fifth in points while LeBron is third in points and seventh in assists, although he is trending to eventually surpass Kareem.

If you value advanced statistics then Kareem also has a case to be made. He is first all-time in win shares with LeBron being third and Jordan being fifth. He is far behind in offensive box plus/minus and defensive box plus/minus, being 26th and 57th all-time, and while those stats are very useful, they are flawed.

Some people value championships more, which is a big hit on LeBron’s legacy as he is 3-for-8 in the NBA Finals while Michael Jordan was 6-for-6. Jabbar also has six rings, tied with Jordan, although he was not perfect in the NBA Finals, going 6-for-10.

Sure, his winning percentage is much lower than Jordan’s, but losing in the Finals is better than losing in the first or second round and Jordan did lose in the playoffs, just not the NBA Finals.

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What about the playoffs? Kareem averaged 24.3 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in 237 playoff games. Fourteen times a player averaged 30 points and 15 rebounds per game in the playoffs, Abdul-Jabbar accounted for three of them. He stepped up in the playoffs.

What about overall accolades? Kareem is a 19-time all-star (most ever), six-time MVP (most ever),15-time All-NBA (tied for most ever with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James), 11 All-Defensive (fourth-most), a four-time block champion, two-time scoring champion, two-time NBA Finals MVP and was the Rookie of the Year for the 1969-1970 season.

You could make the case that Jordan has fewer seasons played, which he did, but longevity should be part of the conversation, should it not? At his absolute peak, there has never been someone as dominant as Michael Jordan. Kareem was very close and was nearly an all-star in every season of his career, only missing it in 1977 because he missed 20 games.

He has just as many rings as Jordan, beats LeBron and Jordan in the traditional box score and is arguably the most decorated athlete of all time in terms of individual accomplishments. What else is there to add?

Well, if we want to talk about the greatest basketball player of all-time, we should not ignore what he did at UCLA. While he has an inherent advantage over LeBron, Kareem is undoubtedly the greatest college basketball, if not athlete, of all-time.

Playing as Lew Alcindor, which was his given name, Jabbar and the UCLA Bruins went 88-2 in three seasons and won the NCAA Championship each season. This is just a prelude of what he would accomplish in LA with the Los Angeles Lakers.

We are arguing about the wrong Los Angeles Lakers player in the GOAT discussion, as the true greatest basketball player of all-time is undoubtedly Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Sorry, Michael Jordan fans.