Generally speaking, most people consider either Michael Jordan or LeBron James to be the GOAT of professional basketball. Jordan was an incredible presence from 1984 to 2003, minus his first two retirements. As for James, he started playing in the NBA in 2003 and, for better or worse, is still playing (he is not the player he used to be, and at some point, his diminishing skills will hurt his legacy).
As we said, most people would go with one of them for the greatest of all time, but not everyone. Take Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Kareem has a somewhat forgotten choice: Oscar Robertson. Robertson was somewhat overshadowed in the 1960s by the Boston Celtics, and the Lakers, first with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, and later with Wilt Chamberlain, but was he truly great?
Absolutely, he was, and this video makes a plausible argument for placing him ahead of Jordan and James.
Robertson, first and foremost, was decades ahead of his time. He was a 6-5 point guard who averaged a triple-double. He was immensely skilled, and strong enough to box out much bigger players.
As the video suggests, Kareem, who played with the Big O for two seasons early in his career, is uniquely qualified to judge greatness. He played against Chamberlain, with Magic Johnson, and against Jordan and Larry Bird.
The basic argument is that Robertson had a combination of total skills, talent, and control of the game that was well beyond that of Jordan and James. Not many people will accept this, because they’ve mostly seen Jordan and James, and Robertson is now 87 years old, and not everyone saw him in his prime.
But it’s a plausible argument as you watch this. What do you think?
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