Can We Say LeGoat Yet?




            Written by: Spencer Teman of Swish Tribune

            In Lebron James's 20th season it only seems like he is getting better when most players begin to decline at his age. He added another accolade to his career on Tuesday night, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most points in NBA history, but is he the goat of basketball yet?

            This has been a debated discussion for the telltale of time whether Lebron is the goat of basketball or not. To me, I believe he is not there just yet. While everyone is praising Lebron for breaking the scoring record, people have to realize that the Kareem's record was much more impressive than Lebron's. Kareem competed in an era of violence with little rules. Today's game is filled with soft fouls and slouchy defense.

            Kareem played in a time where the three-pointer was not as widely used as it is today and as a result only made one career three pointer compared to Lebron's 2,237, where that number can only go up. If Kareem shot the three-pointer more like Lebron does, then Lebron would be nowhere close to breaking Kareem's record.

            The fact that Kareem scored over 38,000 points with one career three-pointer and the rest being two-pointers and free throws is pretty unbelievable. Kareem is one of the players that stands in the way of Lebron being classified as the goat of the NBA, some can make the argument that Abdul-Jabbar is the greatest to ever do it.

            Others like myself, list Michael Jordan ahead of Lebron James. Jordan, one of the most clutch players of all time, 6-0 in the finals, and a pack resume, also has all but more accolades than LeBron. He may not have the most points of all time, but who knows what would've happened if he didn't take break from basketball and play baseball for a couple of years.

             The younger generation is more biased to Lebron within the goat debate because they grew up watching him, whereas the older generation feels the same towards MJ. I side with the older generation because I believe that it was much harder to succeed at the rate that Jordan did when he played compared to Lebron's era now.

            Either way, breaking the NBA all-time scoring record is an impressive thing to do, but I don't think this makes Lebron James the greatest basketball player of all time just yet. I still have MJ as my goat and Lebron in 2nd, with Kareem behind at 3rd. The debate will continue for years to come, with
no right answer, but in my opinion, MJ is the goat. 

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