LeBron James’ Monday night performance in a win over the Magic pushed him to 25th all-time in NBA assists, making him just the second player besides Oscar Robertson to enjoy a spot on that leaderboard as well as the top 25 in scoring.
LeBron James says we spend too much time trying to compare NBA greats
He’s got a point! Everyone’s great and there’s no wrong answer!
Elsa/Getty Images
For some, this is a moment to reflect and feel fortunate our species gave us two such brilliant, versatile players in a span of 50 years. For others, it's an opportunity to dust off the questions about who's better and where LeBron ranks among the greatest to ever play. You can count LeBron in that frist group. Via Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:
“I think what we get caught up in, in our league too much is trying to compare greats to greats instead of just accepting and acknowledging and saying, ‘Wow, these are just great players,’” James said. “I think in the NFL when you talk about great quarterbacks, they don’t really compare great quarterbacks. They say, ‘Oh, Joe Montana is great.’ You know, ‘Tom Brady is great. Aaron Rodgers is great. Steve Young is great.’ (Terry) Bradshaw, all those great quarterbacks they never compare them as much, but when it comes to our sport we’re so eager to say, ‘Who is better, Oscar or (Michael) Jordan?’ or, ‘Jordan or LeBron or Kobe (Bryant) or these guys?’ instead of just accepting greatness.”
I can’t vouch with certainty for that contrast with the NFL, but I do appreciate LeBron’s point. With no way to collapse the variables of era, team, luck, and so many other forces affecting individual greatness, we will never find a hard answer on who is the superior between two similar players. Team sports are not a sound experimental setting. It’s still a fun exercise and a great way to fill time between the games themselves, as long as fans acknowledge that:
1. Those debates will circle themselves forever, never producing a winner.
2. The actual subjects of those debates might not consider these things, at least not openly.
So while we shout ourselves hoarse about “legacies” and G.O.A.Ts and stuff, LeBron’s appraisal of history is basically “Oscar Robertson was very amazing. I am also very amazing.”
Meanwhile, we can all agree that Reggie Miller, while great, is not part of this conversation:
And yet, when it was mentioned to James Monday morning that he would soon pass Miller, he was asked if he had a favorite memory of from Miller’s career.
“Uh, no,” James said, standing in silence until another question was asked on a different topic.
