LeBron James made headlines this week when, during an episode of the UNINTERRUPTED series “More Than An Athlete,” he admitted that he considers himself the greatest basketball player of all time, in large part because of how he was able to lead the Cavs to an unbelievable 3-1 comeback to win the 2016 championship.
Naturally, it sparked all sorts of debate. Old-timers like Isiah Thomas were clutching their pearls and lecturing about the virtues of humility, while many among the sports media took to navel-gazing about the hypocrisy of how we expect athletes to behave. Celtics president Danny Ainge took it to a whole new level when he compared LeBron’s claim to Trumpian braggadocio.
On Friday’s episode of the The Jump, frequent guest and notable Jordan teammate Scottie Pippen of course chimed in on the discussion, and let’s just say his position was pretty much exactly what you would expect.
Scottie Pippen has his own idea of what makes a player the GOAT 👀 pic.twitter.com/CApmLCkRRb
— ESPN (@espn) January 4, 2019
“I think it’s pretty great that a guy won three titles, left for two years, then came back and won three more. That is considered greatness to me. Winning ultimately decides who the greatest players are in the game.”
In other words, title quantity over quality so to speak.
It comes as no surprise that Pip feels so strongly about his former teammate Michael Jordan. Fair or not, that last bit about winning will be the crux of all arguments favoring MJ for years to come, as his flawless 6-0 record in the Finals ultimately dwarfs LeBron’s 3-6 record.
Regardless, you can always count on Pip to come to his guy’s defense whenever this debate pokes its head out, as it is periodically wont to do.
