LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of all time. Why? Because he’s the all-time leader in points? Because he has been so dominant in the NBA for so long? Or is it because people are too stubborn to see other perspectives?
This goes with all sports, basketball, football, baseball, golf, hockey, soccer, you name it. People don’t know how to debate and talk about the greatest of all time in different sports. Because there really is no wrong answer, within reason.
Now, when talking about the greatest of all time there are a couple of key aspects you have to go through. One thing is that the greatest to ever play a sport has to be great at every aspect of the game. They have little to no weaknesses. In basketball it’s being able to shoot three’s, mid’s, and layups. Being able to dunk, play defense, pass accurately etc. It goes the same for every sport.
“Michael Jordan is the GOAT in basketball” said Daniel Delcoure (‘26) an athlete at Arlington High school. “He did more in less time, is 6-0 in the finals, has multiple MVP’s, and he was dominating at that point” said Delcoure.
For the most part the majority of people have chosen the right athletes for their discussions. But on the flip side of things, you need to make sure you have evidence to back up why you think they are great.
Personally, saying someone has a certain amount of championships makes them the greatest isn’t a great start. That can’t be true all the time. Obviously winning championships is very crucial to deciding who you want as the greatest of all time. But if it’s only that, then it’s set in stone that Bill Russel (Basketball), Yogi Berra (Baseball), Lou Groza (Football), Landon Donavan (Soccer), etc. The list goes on, those are the greatest to ever play their sport? As much as those are great players, you can’t just go off of that.
“(Tom Brady) he kind of has like an underdog story, so he kind of came up from nothing” said Conner Haines (‘26), an Arlington High school football player. “Once he did get that chance, he proved himself and he became the best in the league,” Haines said. Notice he mentioned nothing about his 7 super bowl rings, because there is more to debating than just that.
For example, if I were to say Willie Mays was the greatest baseball player of all time I would back it up with;
He is a 2x MVP, ROTY, 24x All-star, 12x Gold Glover, and a World Series winner. He has a career batting average of .301, 1,909 RBI’s, 660 home runs, and 3,293 hits. He has come up clutch in multiple times of his career, he could do everything, was a 5-tool player, and was an all around good guy.
Wouldn’t that make more sense? Wouldn’t that make a strong argument rather than stating one statistical fact? But some people will still argue that Barry Bonds or Ken Griffey or Babe Ruth are the greatest of all time. Here’s the catch, you’re not wrong. Neither is your friend.
“I think it would be unfair to say one has less skill than the other,” said Haines. “They just have different stories and different backgrounds,” Haines said.
You see that’s the beauty of sports, they have been around for so long that there really is no right or wrong answer to who is the greatest of all time.
Michael, LeBron, Wilt, Kobe, etc. People will always argue that one of them is better than the other, and that’s fine. But we can also accept the fact that they are still great players. None of them are leaps and bounds ahead of another. They all have done great things in their career, have won big games, have contributed to the history of their league etc.
Even with that, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. The problem with today is that everyone seems to have one opinion, and stubbornly push out any others, and put that opinion down. Why can’t somebody say LeBron is great? Why can’t someone choose Peyton Manning over Tom Brady?
If you had a choice between putting Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on your team, they would both play exceptionally well, and contribute widely to their team. If you don’t believe that then I have to ask, have you ever seen any of them play?
“I just think that Tom Brady has statistics that Manning doesn’t,” said Levi Near (‘27) a former athlete and avid sports fan. “But I think there is an argument for Manning being the best,” Near said. Finding common ground and respecting others’ opinions because they both are still great players.
The point being made here is that there is that 1. Choosing the greatest of all time is not easy, but not that deep. 2. That when you decide to take a side on who you want to choose as the greatest of all time, you need to make sure you have reasonable evidence to back it up. But, 3. There is no wrong answer. In the end, your opinion and your friend’s opinion are fine.
Because Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays are both great baseball players. They both have things that one is better at than the other, and vice versa. But in the end, they both are great players and will always be great players. If you don’t believe that’s true, then I’m sorry to say that you may not understand the true beauty of athletes, sports, and pursuit of triumph.
“People are very one-sided in arguments and they already have made up their minds when determining a GOAT, and it’s very hard to change someone’s mind or find common ground” said Delcoure.
