The Case for Kareem as the G.O.A.T.
Kareem’s famous Sky Hook was unstoppable
With the basketball world on pause, there’s no greater time than the present to revisit one of the great debates of all time. Many a friendship has been strained in the crossfires of debate, with passionate opinions rejoicing from basketball fans all over the world – who is the G.O.A.T.?
Most recently, the greatest player of all time discussions have centered around two players - Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Both are transcendent talents with incredible career resumes, whose larger than life reputations have undoubtedly been enhanced by TV exposure, social media, and marketing/endorsement opportunities.
Clearly, the biases of sports media personalities have a profound impact on these debates, typically giving Michael the edge because many of the TV pundits (including his peers like Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller) have anointed him the greatest. End of discussion.
This will only be magnified with the much-hyped ESPN documentary (thank you ESPN for the early release) on Michael and the Bulls - The Last Dance.
Occasionally, you’ll hear people toss the names of Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, or Magic Johnson into the hat. They never get much traction, though.
Kareem on the Milwaukee Bucks in the early 1970s
In my opinion, the player that is mentioned sometimes but often overlooked is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (formerly Lew Alcindor).
Allow me to make my case for Kareem. The following evidence proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has every right to claim the title of the best ever.
To begin, we’ll take a look at a comparison of Kareem to Michael and LeBron. The analysis is going to be based strictly on the facts (awards, stats, winning) over each player’s entire body of work - high school, college, international competition, and the NBA.
To keep things objective, we will not be factoring in items based on opinions or conjecture such as: Who had better teammates? Who faced tougher opponents? Who played in a more difficult era? Who played a tougher position? Who passes the eye test?
Just the cold hard facts. Here we go.
High School
Kareem (Power Memorial High in New York City)
Scored more than 2,000 points and secured more than 2,000 rebounds, both New York City records at the time - 4-time all New York City selection
3-time Parade All American
2-time national high school player of the year
95-6 overall record (a winning percentage of .941), including a 71 game winning streak
3 straight New York City Catholic School Championships
National high school champions during sophomore and junior seasons, runner-up as a senior
1963-64 team was selected as the #1 high school team of the century
Michael (Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina)
2-year varsity starter who averaged nearly 25 ppg as a junior and a triple double as a senior (26.8 ppg, 11.6 rpg, 10.1 apg)
McDonald’s All American who was named MVP of the game
Limited team success, during his senior season, Laney was ranked #1 in the state of North Carolina before being upset in the playoffs and finishing with an overall record of 19-4 (a winning percentage of .826).
LeBron (St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio)
Averaged over 20 ppg for 4 straight seasons, culminated by senior year when he averaged 31.6 ppg, 9.6 rbg, and 4.6 apg
2,657 career points - 3-time Mr. Basketball in Ohio
McDonald’s All American who was named MVP of the game
3-time high school All American
2-time national high school player of the year
Overall record of 102-6 (a winning percentage of .944)
State D-3 champs as a sophomore and junior, D-2 runner up as a junior, and D-2 champ as a senior
Ranked #1 team in the country as a senior.
Conclusion #1 - it’s a close call between Kareem and LeBron but the slight edge goes to Kareem, based on the fact that his team won multiple national championships – including one that was recognized as the team of the century.
Michael’s high school career, while impressive, falls well short of both Kareem and LeBron. After all, we all know the legendary story of him being cut from the varsity team as a sophomore.
College
Kareem (UCLA)
Freshmen weren’t eligible to play varsity basketball at the time so Kareem’s career reflects just 3 seasons. It’s important to note that Kareem’s freshman team did play the UCLA varsity in an exhibition game prior to the 1966 season and beat the preseason #1 team in the country 75-60 with Kareem scoring 31 points and pulling down 21 rebounds.
Also worth mentioning that Kareem’s presence forced the NCAA to change its rules - banning the dunk. This, of course, helped Kareem develop one of the most devastating shots of all time - the Skyhook.
Career averages of 26.4 ppg and 15.5 rpg
3-time consensus first team All American
3-time national college player of the year
3-time most outstanding player at the Final 4
88-2 record (a winning percentage of .978)
3-time national champion
Michael (University of North Carolina)
Michael played 3 seasons before leaving for the NBA after his junior year.
Career averages of 17.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.8 apg
2-time consensus first team All American
1-time national player of the year
88-13 record (a winning percentage of .871)
1-time national champion (Sweet 16 and Elite 8 appearances the other two years)
LeBron
LeBron, of course, skipped college and went straight to the NBA out of high school.
Conclusion #2 - This isn’t even close, Kareem is the greatest collegiate player of all-time. Based on fan voting, Michael was recently ranked as the #1 college player of all time in an ESPN bracket challenge. This is a joke but maybe these are the same fans that agree with Kyrie Irving that the earth is flat.
A great example, however, of the “Michael” bias that permeates the basketball world. In fact, Michael wasn’t even the best player on his college team the year they won the national championship. That would be James Worthy, the most outstanding player of the Final 4 that year.
International Competition
Kareem
Kareem never participated in international competition for the U.S.A. He chose to boycott the 1968 Olympic Games, where the U.S. easily won a gold medal, to protest unfair treatment of African-American athletes in this country.
Michael
2-time Olympic gold medalist (1984 as a collegian and 1992 as part of the original Dream Team)
Led team in scoring in 1984 with 17.1 ppg and finished second in 1992 with 14.9 ppg
One of only 3 players to ever win an Olympic gold medal as both a collegian and a pro
2-time U.S.A. Basketball male athlete of the year
LeBron·
2-time Olympic gold medalist (2008 in Beijing as part of the “Redeem Team” and 2012 in London)·
1-time Olympic bronze medalist·
1 time World Cup bronze medalist·
1-time FIBA Americas gold medalist·
All-time leader in scoring and assists in Team U.S.A. basketball history·
Only U.S. player to ever record a triple double ·
One of only 3 male U.S.A. basketball players to compete in 3 Olympics ·
1-time U.S.A. Basketball male athlete of the year
Conclusion #3 - this is another close call between Michael and LeBron. They were both the preeminent players on their respective teams in international competition, both have two Olympic golds, but we have to give LeBron the nod for securing more overall medals.
For the NBA comparison, we are going to do a side-by-side comparison of awards, career stats/rankings and winning:
Conclusion #4 - While all three players have had outstanding NBA careers, it is clear that Kareem is the winner here - he has an edge in all three categories - awards, career stats/rankings, and winning. That being said, LeBron is still active and could ultimately pass Kareem in several of these key metrics.
The Verdict
After reviewing all of the evidence, to any objective observer, the case is clear. Kareem is not a long shot, quite the opposite, in fact. It’s a slam dunk. Or rather, a skyhook.
Join me in proclaiming Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the undisputed G.O.A.T. Based on his entire body of work from high school to the NBA, Kareem has clearly outperformed both Michael and LeBron. In fact, the bigger story might be why is Michael really even in the discussion. (UH, please turn the comments off on this post).
Kareem also boasted an underrated sneaker game.
LeBron’s story is still playing out, so he has a fighting chance to take the throne from Kareem some day - and if he does, then he truly will be the King.
P.S. Can you hear Stephen A. Smith shrieking in the background as you read this? This is crazy – this is blasphemy, Michael is the greatest. He had that killer mentality, unmatched competitive fire, the “clutch” gene, and, of course, the shoes.
It’s gotta be the shoes.
What if he didn’t get cut from his high school team as a sophomore?
What if he left North Carolina after his freshman year?
What if he didn’t break his foot in year 2 of his NBA career?
What if he didn’t take the one year hiatus to play baseball?
What if he didn’t retire for 3 years near the peak of his career?
All interesting questions, but as a former coach of mine use to say "there are a lot of players in the “if” league.” In this case, even one of the greatest of all time.