NEWSLETTER
The Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it might now be more contentious than ever before.
The Athletic recently released its annual anonymous player survey. Among the many questions was “who is the greatest player of all time?” Jordan has dominated the discussion every year, but James has finally made a significant dent in his lead. Jordan received 45.9 percent of the votes in The Athletic’s player survey, while James received 42.1 percent. This means the gap is only 3.8 percent after sitting at 25.3 last season.
HoopsHype decided to take an even closer look at this, running their own poll that focused specifically on the GOAT debate. Fortunately, the results leaned further in Jordan’s direction, but they still helped demonstrate that the race is becoming tighter and tighter.
We talked more about the Chicago Bulls’ representation in The Athletic’s poll here.
The overall tally gave Michael Jordan 49 percent of the votes compared to LeBron James’ 37 percent. Kobe Bryant received 9 percent of the votes after receiving 9.8 percent in The Athletic’s poll. But HoopsHype broke things down even further.
Interestingly enough, among the non-American players, Jordan held a 65.2 percent edge in the GOAT debate, while James sat at just 26.1 percent. This may help Jordan fend off LeBron believers in the years to come, especially with the game becoming increasingly global.
As for the players born in 1995 or earlier, Jordan earned 77.8 percent of the votes to James’ 16.7 percent. If we flip things to players born post-2000, Jordan is the one who receives an underwhelming 27.8 percent to James’ 47.2 percent. So while Jordan may be getting a nice boost from those overseas talents, a younger league (unsurprisingly) doesn’t bode well for his chances of seeing a lead grow.
All things considered, we can’t be stunned that the gap is beginning to shrink, specifically among NBA players. The truth of the matter is that Jordan played his last basketball game over 23 years ago. In other words, there are players currently suiting up in the NBA who weren’t even alive the last time he dawned an NBA jersey. Professional athletes leaning in favor of the ones they grew up watching will happen for all of eternity. But, hey, I think it still says something that James’ lead among post-2000s kids isn’t bigger!
So does this mean I’ll simply accept if James surpasses Jordan in one of these polls down the road? Nope. I don’t think surveying the players is a genuine representation of where the conversation stands among the general public. I feel pretty strongly that if you surveyed a wide age range of fans, Michael Jordan’s lead for the title of GOAT would be considerably bigger. But, as I said, I do understand why this argument among NBA players has started to shift.
Anyway, HoopsHype broke down the results even further, and I highly recommend you give that a look here. They even showed how former LeBron James teammates voted, which surely caught my off guard!
