Curry, James, and Durant

With the conclusion of the 2024 Olympics and the USA Team winning the Gold Medal in basketball I couldn’t help but reflect back on my pick three years ago for the greatest basketball player of all time, LeBron James. I am even more convinced today than in 2022 that I made the right pick. I spent 10 months doing research for my book, “The G.O.A.T.: The Quest to Find the Best”, but I have spent a lifetime developing 10 criteria that defines  a great player. The unselfishness and dedication that LeBron James exhibited in leading the USA Team to the Gold in Paris was extraordinary. How can he still play at that level? He has played in the NBA for 20 years and will turn 40 years-old in 4 months. Every player, as well as the coaches, talked about his preparation, work ethic, and dedication. I have to confess it was NOT an easy pick for me back in 2022. As I mentioned in my book, for over 50 years I always thought Wilt Chamberlain was the GOAT. Then it got even more difficult when two other “once in a lifetime players” came along in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan.

The 10 criteria I defined and elaborated on in my book comes from my 22 years experience as a player and coach of this great game I love.  My goal was not to try and convince anyone that I was right and they were wrong. I realized going into writing The GOAT that in many ways it was an exercise in futility. I tried to be unbiased and to follow the criteria wherever it led. I took it seriously. There are so many extenuating circumstances such as rule changes, era, size of the league, etc. that makes it impossible to “objectively” compare one player with another throughout the 78 year-old history of the NBA. I don’t apologize for anyone of the great players I chose for my book, they deserved to be there. Picking the order of the players got much more difficult the closer to #1 that I got. In addition to my criteria of dominance, physicality, longevity, offense over defense, statistics, awards, winning, yardstick, clutch, and playing both ends of the court,  I was able to lean on my experience as a player, coach, and fan. I am blessed to have seen every player play that is in my book. I think that I offer the reader a unique perspective.

Greatness is easy to recognize but sometimes hard to define. I look at things that relate to sports through the eyes of someone who has been in the “arena”. As a former player, I ask myself who would I want on my team? As a coach, who would I want to build my team around? As an owner , I would ask who would give me the best chance to win championships? (I wrote several pages in my book describing and defining the reasons why I do not believe ONE player in a TEAM sport can win a championship. Winning is a very important criteria BUT it is only ONE of my criteria.) The USA Olympic basketball team did not win just because of LeBron James, but you have to ask yourself would they have won without him? I think not. It helps to have players like Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards, Joel Embid, etc. on your team. But as great as these players are there still has to be a leader, an alpha dog, that leads the way. After all the research, stats, longevity, and still one more accomplishment with his third gold medal AND an MVP Award it has become more difficult, for me, to place any other player in the history of the game above LeBron Raymone James Jr.