[3:41] Chuck on the GOAT debate: “Kareem was the greatest in his generation, MJ was the greatest in his generation, and LeBron’s been the greatest in his generation. You can’t compare eras. It’s impossible.”
by blinkhit
@National Basketball Association
40 Comments
Well that’s a totally reasonable stance
I like his stance more than the people who argue nonstop about who the *true GOAT* is.
This is the only correct answer to this debate. It’s illogical to compare players in different eras.
You can compare anything, that’s the point of comparisons. That said im sick of hearing about it please don’t
#Common Chuck W
This has been my stance but I still get people who get pissed off I’m not claiming their favorite player as the GOAT.
…well that is the best answer I have ever heard.
This is the only fair comparison. The competition in-between eras and the rule changes make it impossible to compare
He’s right.
I can and I will
For me as long as you have 1 choice of someone who was an all time great during their time im fine with whoever you choose
If you wanna choose MJ, Bron, Kareem, magic, Bird, Kobe, Duncan, etc. hell even if you were around long enough to claim Moses or even Mikan I am fine with it
If they were the best of their era then its a fine answer to me
“Greatest of Their Eras” (GOTEs) >>> “Greatest of All Time” (GOAT)
Didnt Chuck call Bron 7 on his list like few weeks ago LOL
Give my man some churros.
I feel like this should just be called the “Barkley Theory of GOAT Eras.” Then we can stop talking about it.
The list is Russell, Kareem, MJ, and Lebron. That’s it so far. I don’t care to talk about “who was better.” They were all the best of their eras. Greater than the other “greats” of their eras.
Chuck knows what he’s talking about.
For example, some oldhead will say the GOAT PG is Bob Cousy and some nephew will say it’s Chris Paul (this is just an example). The oldhead will hold CP3’s lack of rings against him and the nephew will say Bob shot 39% against plumbers and milkmen. The disappointing thing about GOAT debates is that either side will magnify the struggle that THEIR GOAT went through and downplay the struggle that the opposite side went through. “Uhhh Bob had to ride covered wagons on the Oregon Trail,” “uhhh CP3 had to endure countless injuries to play at the highest talent level to date,” etc. It’s not about wanting to find out who’s theoretically better between the two anymore, it’s about who can fanboy harder.
I feel like MJ is culturally the GOAT, just in terms of what he did for the NBA worldwide and how insane his peak was. Definitely agree though that you can’t compare eras, the game is constantly evolving and at the end of the day each person’s GOAT is super subjective.
Jordan been saying this for years
forget all that. who is this generation’s Jud Buechler?
I think there’s a line that can cross the threshold of eras. I don’t think we’ve seen it yet. But just from like a hypothetical point of view.
If there was a player that scored the most points ever, had the most steals, assists, blocks, rebounds. They had the best %s for all of their shooting. Won every game possible as the obvious leader. And they did all that in only 10 years time.
Now of course, there is almost no chance that would ever happen. But the point isn’t that it would happen, it’s that it could. There is some threshold where greatness transcends era in the GOAT debate.
But there also isn’t a person that has come close to that era-transcendent line. So Chuck is right, for now.
I’ve been saying this for years now. You can’t compare eras like this. Rules are different, basketball level was different and crucifying someone from the 60s because they only had 10 teams and only 2 were truly relevant is just completely strange. Same way saying “well, if you put player x into this and this era, he’d dominate” is just unfair, because basketball and technology has advanced so much over the past decades, so ofc a player of today would have an easier time in a game from 50+ years ago.
Chuck with the usual W, It’s Bill of his era, Kareem of his, MJ of his and LeBron of his.
So who are the other eras GOATS?
I feel there is enough for an era in between Lebron’s dominance and himself.
And before MJ, but after Kareem. Is that another era worthy time?
I hope this answer becomes the norm in people’s thinking. Nothing about Lebron’s greatness diminishes Jordan. Nothing about Jordan diminishes Lebron. We’ll never know the answer to that question in reality. No matter how many ways you spin it with different stats.
(But I’d still take Jordan with 2 minutes to go in any game over any player in any era hahaha)
Yet Chuck has Bron at 7 lmfao
Boring Chuck
It’s absurd this is even a discussion. Greatest at what? This is a team sport and there are many great players. They all can win and coexist.
You don’t hear this in any other sport constantly.
Didn’t MJ had a similar stance we he got interviewed before?
‘I won six championships, Bill Russell won 11. Does that make Bill Russell better than me or make me better than him? No. Because we played in different eras. ´
Chuck gave my brothers lemonade stand 100 dollars today he’s my goat
I agree with the gist of what is being said here. It’s impossible to compare across eras in the way that GOAT is normally discussed.
What you can compare across eras, IMO, is a players dominance during their own era and the duration of that dominance. Right now, no one touches LeBron in the combination of longevity with dominance within their own era. That said, and without intending to take anything away from LeBron’s work ethic, physical gifts, and drive to succeed: I think this is in large part due to organic advances within related disciplines over time. The team that supports LeBron (trainers, medical staff, nutritionists, and everything else) is more advanced than what MJ had 25 years ago.
Was MJ a better player? We’ll never be able to know. You can’t compare across eras that way. Was LeBron dominant within his era for longer than MJ or Kareem were? Without a doubt. How much of that is LeBron being better vs his support staff being better? Who knows! And this doesn’t even get into the luck of avoiding serious injury across multiple decades of high level play.
IMO, it’s likely that we will have another player like LeBron pop up in the near future that maintains their dominance for a long period of time, at which point LeBron won’t be quite as big of an outlier as he currently is. Until that happens, it’s hard for me to argue against LeBron being the GOAT in a general sense.
I think multiple GOATs is kind of cool. You can see how different the game was by examining the GOATs
GOTE
Greatest of That Era
Still sounds like GOAT so let’s go with it
I always think of the overlapping players in these debates.
50’s mikan
60’s Russell
70’s Kareem
80’s magic
90’s Jordan
2000’s Kobe
2010’s lebron
2004 Rules; Hand checking and help defense.
Who you taking first in the all time fantasy draft?
Probably Still Jordan.
My English prof taught us about fallacies yesterday, this topic came up, he had a similar response about eras and such.
Great take by Chuck lol. I’m shocked he said this tbh 😂
i really dislike GOAT discussion, think it’s pointless, too broad and unmeasurable for me. But isn’t the point of the GOAT that he is the one that transcends eras and would be the best regardless of prevailing dynamics? Like LeBron playing in the 80’s would shape his playstyle accordingly to be the best version of his current self. Liek he would be that good. So this takes is just stating the obvious imo
GOAT or GOTE? Greatest Of That Era?
Kobe stans in shambles
>stupid idiots on the internet
I resemble that remark lol