Gil says MJ was crowned the GOAT before winning his first NBA title.
Michael Jordan fans always point to his six championships and perfect Finals record as the main reasons why LeBron James will never dethrone him as the GOAT. Despite the Los Angeles Lakers superstar surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time scoring leader and showing unprecedented longevity, they will never put The King on His Airness’ level.
However, according to Gilbert Arenas, Mike’s supporters cannot use his championships against LeBron because the Chicago Bulls legend had yet to win one when he was crowned the greatest ever.
“They gave Jordan the GOAT in ’89-’90 with not one championship,” Gilbert argued. “You broke the code and said, ‘None of this sh** matters,’ so stop using it then because you didn’t use it when you removed Kareem, you didn’t use it when Bill Russell got moved, you didn’t use that sh** against Magic Johnson and Bird.”
MJ had the greatest individual season in 1988
According to Arenas, the GOAT debate was settled in 1988 when Mike won the regular-season MVP, All-Star Game MVP, and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season. The Bulls also had their first 50-win campaign since 1974, and Nike released Jordan’s Jumpman logo.
“He literally went from the wings, took the wings off, he got the logo,” Gil said. “They gave him a logo in ’88. People don’t realize that they gave him a logo in ’88. And they took the wings off and say you got the Jordan. And that whole campaign is considered the greatest year anybody could have. That’s when he became the best player ever.”
The following season, the media began referring to Jordan as the GOAT. GQ even published a story referring to Jordan as “The best there ever was” in March 1999. Gil also said another magazine called Mike, “The greatest to ever touch the basketball,” but he couldn’t remember which one.
Gil calls out MJ fans
Michael won his first NBA title in 1991. On the other hand, Magic Johnson had already won five, and Larry Bird had three during the 1980s. Karem won six championships, and Bill Russell had more rings than fingers with 11.
However, MJ’s fans disregarded their accolades and declared him the greatest of all time.
“You removed these dudes from the GOAT debate because of how Jordan looked, so you cannot use it against Kobe, LeBron, and all these guys. You can’t use six championships. You can’t use that because you read these ni**as’ accolades, and you gave it to somebody who didn’t have none of this yet,” added Gil.
Most still consider Jordan the greatest basketball player of all time. But suppose you listen to Gil’s argument. In that case, the GOAT is nothing but an image that MJ fans created for him because he is not number one in any major metric—Russell has more championships, Kareem has more MVPs, LeBron has more career points, and so on.