A lot of fans love to debate who the best NBA player of all-time is. Most have it leveled down to either Michael Jordan or LeBron James -- depending on the age of the person debating usually. There are also older people who love to bring up the names of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dr. J. However, one thing that might rub people the wrong way is when a player talks about themselves. Jordan doesn't run around telling people he is the greatest NBA basketball player of all-time -- even if he might believe it. LeBron typically doesn't either -- or at least he didn't.
A 2009 clip of Michael Jordan refusing to declare himself the GOAT has been making the rounds after LeBron did just that last week https://t.co/QSJEKZwZN1
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 2, 2019
LeBron calls himself the Greatest of All-Time
LeBron James has a television show called More Than an Athlete and in that show, he made a huge proclamation. LeBron said that he was the GOAT -- the greatest of all-time. Watch that here:
LeBron James believes he is the greatest player of all-time for beating the 73-9 Warriors. pic.twitter.com/zY3BQC9ubY
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) December 31, 2018
LeBron James talked about how he was able to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to an NBA title -- breaking the 52-year drought in Cleveland for a sport's title.
James said he was crying when it happened and he was crying because he did it for the city of Cleveland. He also did it against the Golden State Warriors -- a team that had a 73-9 record and people were claiming they were the best-assembled team of all-time.
LeBron said that by bringing a title to Cleveland and ending their drought and doing it against the "greatest team of all-time" -- that made him feel like he accomplished something special for one of the only times in his career and that made him feel like he was the greatest player of all-time.
This was LeBron reminiscing about the greatest accomplishment of his career and he has every right to feel like it proved to himself that he was great. However, retired NBA star Chauncey Billups was not impressed.
Billups trashes LeBron
Chauncey Billups disagreed with what LeBron James said in a recent newscast special.
Chauncey Billups on LeBron calling himself the GOAT for beating the 73-9 Warriors "Maybe if he would have hit the shot Kyrie hit" pic.twitter.com/FsSfDIBS2p
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) January 3, 2019
Here is what Chauncey Billups said about LeBron James.
Billups said that he puts LeBron on the Mount Rushmore of basketball but he won't put him at the top. He then mocked what LeBron said about beating the Golden State Warriors and that making him the greatest basketball player of all-time.
Billups was savage. He said that it was impressive that the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the 73-win Golden State Warriors but it didn't make LeBron James the greatest player of all-time. Now, if James had hit the big series-clinching shot that Kyrie hit in the game, he might have considered that statement to be true.
Basically, LeBron James said that beating the Golden State Warriors made him the greatest of all-time but Chauncey Billups said it wasn't James who beat the Warriors -- it was Kyrie Irving.