No, not this GOAT, but the acronym Greatest Of All-Time. Could LeBron James become that guy?
I don’t know why it’s so easy for me to write about basketball sometimes, considering I generally don’t care about the NBA like I once used to. It’s safe to say that I don’t even watching NBA basketball, much less any basketball on television these days, but still, the occasional news snippets I see about the happenings in the NBA still occasionally pique my interest, and sometimes inspire words to be written.
But I read this article about how LeBron James star-struck the hell out of a Special Olympics teenager, simply by approaching and showing a little bit of love, respect and admiration for the young basketball fan. It’s stuff like this that restores faith in professional athletes, and the world as a whole, especially when the media really loves to talk about when people, namely professional athletes, do shitty things like commit various crimes.
I’ll be the first to point out that throughout the duration of his career, I’ve said and/or written plenty of things that have disparaged LeBron James. That he’s overrated, The Decision was shitty, he was a tool for teaming up with Wade and Bosh to gravy-train his way to championships, he’ll never be as good as Jordan, or even Kobe, etc, etc. However lately, my attitude towards King James has been changing somewhat, and it’s probably on account of seeing things like this story among other great stories, and seeing that the guy is capable of being pretty funny, in Trainwreck.
And it got me thinking, that with a pretty positive public image, could LeBron James really ascend to the ranks of being the GOAT?
Hear me out on this one; naturally whenever people talk about basketball’s GOAT, usually Michael Jordan’s name is at the top of the list. Older people, and/or bean counters love to counter with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, because he is the all-time leader in points scored, on top of having the same number of championship rings as MJ. And then there’s always the presence of Kobe Bryant, whom I’ve often gone out of the way to praise his general Jordanesque killer instinct and drive to be the greatest.
But here’s the thing; all those guys have some serious red flags on their personal lives that affect their overall images. MJ is a bitter, resentful retired basketball player who has had a tremendous history of gambling addiction, adultery, and some pretty abusive behavior. Kareem is this politico-wannabe douchebag who resents that his fame stems from basketball, and refuses to talk about basketball to the public, not to mention he was 10 feet tall in an era when opponents were all 6’2, using an OP skyhook to basically make everything a layup. And then there’s Kobe who has that whole rape allegation thing that will forever stick with him for the rest of his life.
When the day is over, LeBron James might not catch any of them in terms of points scored or championship rings. But in terms of general likability, a fairly clean image, and creating a career legacy, I think LeBron is on a pretty smooth track right now, where he could basically be the GOAT.
He’s already notched two championships in his career, and has made it to the Finals six total times; there’s a pretty decent chance that he might win another title or two in his career. He’s already cracked the top-20 in all-time points, and there’s a realistic chance that he could very well surpass all aforementioned greats, if he can maintain his general average for the next five years.
But the bigger variables are if he can maintain his generally clean image, and keep doing the things he’s doing aside from basketball to maintain his general public image. There will always be question of if his actions are genuine, or at the behest or some intricate PR team, but like in the case of the Special Olympian he greeted, he was already on the floor, and there was nobody chirping in his ear to go greet the kid; that was all LeBron, because he wanted to. It’s irrelevant whether he did it because he genuinely wanted to, or if he systematically calculated that it would improve his image, because he still did it, and made the kid’s night, all captured on camera.
If The Decision is the biggest ding against his whole career so far, then I think he’s in a pretty advantageous position over guys like MJ and Kobe, and as long as he can keep his mouth shut about politics or other things that he’s not qualified to speak on, then there’s a really good chance he’ll always be fondly remembered over Abdul-Jabbar.
As far as I’m concerned, I think if LeBron James continues to play basketball as he’s done throughout his whole career, and continues to use his celebrity status to the betterment of others, it’s pretty undeniable that he can pretty easily become the GOAT.
