The masses online will never agree when it comes to the debate on who the best basketball player to ever live is. But we do have insight on how a specific group of the population feels on the GOAT debate and, frankly, it’s not that close.
The Athletic released its answer to the NBA’s GM survey by doing an anonymous survey of current NBA players, touching on a wide range of questions, from who players would want to start a franchise with to who the greatest player ever is.
Here’s how 117 NBA players responded:
7. Who’s the best player of all time?
(117 votes)
- Michael Jordan (73%)
- LeBron James (11.9%)
- Kobe Bryant (10.6%)
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1.7%)
- Magic Johnson, Allen Iverson, Kevin Durant (1%)
Given the state of the Lakers and the doubts about whether they can attract another star player to join LeBron James and the Lakers’ young players, the possibility of James adding more championships to his legacy is in serious doubt. Some of you likely believe that LeBron is better than Jordan in a vacuum. But the answers from players in this poll make it clear the GOAT debate has a lot of external factors at play.
