Michael Jordan is believed to be the best to play basketball by his fans after gaining six NBA championships for the Chicago Bulls. However, former NBA All-Star player Gilbert Arenas argues that MJ’s championships should not be the only basis for being the greatest.
Having won six championships in two three-peats in his 15-year career in the NBA, this feat has become the barometer that many of his loyal fans make as an argument for the ‘GOAT’ wannabes to surpass LeBron James.
Gilbert Arenas stressed that championships should not be the metric for determining an NBA player’s greatness. The former Golden State Warrior point guard defended his opinion on the “Above the Rim with DH12” podcast, arguing that other factors signify Michael Jordan’s legacy, which is often overlooked.
“This is what I hate about the narrative now. When they say, ‘He’s the GOAT, and you’ve got to have this, this, this and this.’ When he got the title, he didn’t have that. When he got crowned the greatest of all time, he didn’t have a championship. When they said, ‘You’re better than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,’ he did not have a championship yet,” Arenas said.
Additionally, Arenas said people should base more than just a player’s lasting legacies on NBA championships, highlighting other players who achieved the same during Jordan’s era.
“You broke the code and said, ‘None of this s**t matters,'” Arenas said. “So, stop using it then because you didn’t use it when you removed Kareem, you didn’t use it when Bill Russell got moved, you didn’t use that s**t against Magic Johnson and [Larry] Bird.”
Michael Jordan’s legacy paved way for his successors
After Michael Jordan retired in 2003, many players carried the torch and followed in his footsteps in elevating the game worldwide.
Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are the top-of-mind names in today’s NBA who benefitted from Jordan’s legacy, and some may argue that Luka Doncic is next in line to be the face of basketball.
Arenas believes in Doncic’s potential, and stressed that, moving forward, the Slovenian superstar should not be judged on the number of championships he won in his young basketball career.
“Like Luka, there’s no player that can come into the league, average 37, 35, 32 and 33 [points per game], and no one says, ‘When are you gonna win championships?’ Name somebody who can go and win a scoring title five times before they start questioning his legacy,” Arenas said.
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