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With LeBron James on the brink of his fourth NBA championship, if the Lakers can hold off the Heat with a 3-1 series lead in the Finals, we are beginning to see league observers of all stripes weigh in on the debate about James’ all-time stature, especially compared with Bulls legend Michael Jordan, who won six championships.
Hall of Fame guard Isiah Thomas, a well-known adversary of Jordan and a guy who still has a beef against MJ, declared on Thursday that he has now seen enough of James to declare that he is the greatest player of all time, better known as the GOAT. Speaking on Twitter, Thomas said that James passed the eye test as the best ever and that the stats backup the evaluation: “#Goat let it be known!”
In a not-so-shocking development, it turns out not everyone is as enthusiastic about James’ place at the top of the league’s all-time hierarchy as Thomas.
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ESPN professional chatterer Stephen A. Smith, who has yet to play a minute of NBA basketball, stepped in to declare that Thomas (35,516 NBA minutes) is wrong and that Thomas does not understand the very era of basketball that he helped to form.
“Eras matter,” Smith said. “What I find most egregious, most blasphemous about Isiah Thomas’ statement is that he ignores the era he was playing in as far as I am concerned. It was very physical, it was very volatile. … I am talking about banging bodies, Jordan rules, people getting assaulted and only getting called for a foul.”
Smith went on: “LeBron James, at 6-foot-9, 260 pounds, is playing in the softest era we have ever seen in NBA basketball. The fact that Isiah Thomas ignores that is beyond me.”
Thomas’ Era Was Tougher, But Today’s Players Are Bigger
No doubt, the late 1980s and early 1990s were a tougher era of basketball than what we see in the present day. There were no flagrant fouls, hand-checking was allowed, the lane was patrolled by goons like Bill Laimbeer and Charles Oakley. It was a more physical game.
At the same time, the athletes in today’s game are in much better shape and are far better educated on how to build up and maintain their bodies than players 25 years ago. Yes, there has been a crackdown on swipes to the head and non-basketball hard fouls in general, and that makes basketball in this era somewhat softer it was in the old NBA. But there were not a lot of guys running around with bodies like, say, the massive and sculpted Dwight Howard.
Soft? LeBron James has Battle Scars
The league has eliminated cheap shots. But it has not eliminated big guys from the game, and big guys bring their own levels of physical play. Taking a hard foul from, say, Jae Crowder hurts more than a little.
James certainly does not see softness in league now. He has taken a number of hard losses in his career and says it has been up to him to learn from each.
The best teacher is life experience. I’ve played against great coaches throughout my whole career, not only in the regular season but in the postseason, throughout first, second, third, Finals runs. I’ve played against some exceptional coaches, great coaches, Hall of Fame coaches, Hall of Fame players.
They’ve all, opponents and coaches, helped me get to this point where I am today, to a point where I have no weakness, offensively or defensively, to where if I can read a defense, I can exploit it. I can put myself in a position to be successful. It doesn’t mean that the ball goes in all the time, but there’s nothing out on the floor that I cannot do at this point in my career.
That’s all because of the competition and the adversity and the losses and everything I’ve been through throughout the course of my career. At that point in time I say I’ve got to work on this because that’s what they’re allowing me to have; now I’ve got to work on this because they’re shutting this down in my game. It’s just like I said, the best teacher in life is life experience, and I’ve experienced it all.
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