Lebron on being the GOAT

This is a loaded topic- Is Lebron the GOAT. I thought it was unfair to  have the discussion after less than 10 seasons, but now with 13 in and the body of work he has put down, endearing many in the process, I believe it is now an intriguing debate. For the record, this is the comment I made on the First Take discussion board, following Stephen A Smith's rant.


I agree strongly with Stephen A Smith on so many points, yet there is a part of me that resents his notions, as well as the ignorant rhetoric below. I am the biggest Kobe fan, and one of the biggest Jordan fans. Normally, I would make each point that he made myself tack for tack. However, when I stepped back recently and really looked at Big Bro Lebron's career, it feels ignorant to ignore 2 key facts. 1. He is hands down, a better all around player than Kobe or Jordan ever were. 2. Neither of them really had singular impact that Lebron had on the league in his career, partially due to that. Really think about that last point. If you remove all emotion from your analysis, you have to realize that regardless of where you rank him, it's stupid at this point, especially with this last finals performance, to refuse to put him in the conversation. Bottom line, what is your preference? What it comes down to for me is that you were never concerned that Kobe or Jordan could hand out 15 assists while putting up 40 on any given night at will. You were never concerned that they could slice your defense up, or drop down and play with their back to the rim at any given moment at will. With Lebron you were. It's the same difference between Steph and Lebron. If Steph had 3 rings for 3 finals, I would still take Lebron, because I take championships with a grain of salt. There are athletically imposing player in Lebron's way to those titles. Mike was usually on another level athletically during his reign. I'll debate that all night, but I will always take a 1 man team over a guy who shines in a few areas. Lebron is the greatest 1 man team we have ever seen. Whether he is the greatest, I'm not set on that yet, as I still put Jordan there in most arguments, but he certainly has his case being made.