The GOAT Debate Is Back:
The LeBron vs Jordan goat debate has resurfaced in recent months, thanks to the “We’re Done With the ’90s” movement, which has attempted to discredit the success of Michael Jordan and other stars from the “Golden Era” of basketball. In mid February, the TikTok user @yooreaction started analyzing clips from 1980s and ’90s basketball games, calling out players for not being able to dribble with their left hands and missing easy shots. This eventually evolved into the argument that Michael Jordan was “big trash” and that LeBron James would have dominated the “Golden Era” of basketball. The argument is summarized by the tag line “We’re Done With the ’90s”, and many fans across the internet have started taking sides in this new debate with many posting lowlights from this period as their case against Jordan. Many other people online began posting videos enforcing or discrediting basketball’s best decade, and arguing about who the so-called “GOAT” of basketball really is.
Did Michael Jordan Really Have “No Left Hand?”:
One of the biggest arguments brought against Jordan is that he couldn’t dribble and make plays with his left hand, with many calling him “the Jaylen Brown of the ’90s”. Is this true? Out of 1074 total moves made, he took over half with his left hand, scoring a whopping 61.3% of shots taken after these moves, only 0.4% less than moves with his right hand. However, he did have 36 turnovers with his left hand on these plays compared to the 15 he had with his right, but this is to be expected from most right handed players anyway.
Another commonly brought up argument is that Jordan had no competition. Pessimists say “he played against plumbers” and that he always had a “Superteam” with first-ballot hall-of-famer Scottie Pippen as his right hand man. Many online argue that Jordan’s six championships were all won against bad players on bad teams. These arguments are subjective, also depending on how good one may perceive Jordan’s teammates and opponents to be, but one thing is for sure: Jordan most definitely did not play against plumbers and his competition included some of the most talented basketball players of all time such as Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, and many more Hall of Fame inductees.
The Game Has Evolved:
The truth is, the game of basketball has changed since the ’80s and ’90s, and people may be right to say that many superstars of that era would not fare well in today’s game. The physicality and strength of players has increased by great margins from Jordan’s era, and the reliance on the three-pointer has changed the way the game is played. Despite this, many players have excelled in multiple eras of basketball, and performed just as well if not better than how they did before changes in the game. All-time greats such as Kobe Bryant and Larry Bird exemplify this, as they played against legends both older and newer relative to their times and still put up Hall of Fame-worthy numbers.
At the end of the day, the game is completely different and everybody will have their opinion on who they think is the GOAT, whether they compare players relative to their times, or overall based on abilities that are up to them. We are quite done with the ’90s just yet, and in 20 years, Lebron and Jordan could even fall out of the GOAT debate.
