LeBron James the greatest? Like the Spurs, we’re not buying it

Tim Duncan

Duncan: two-time MVP, five-time champion, and million-time all-star. You would think that if anyone could stand above the rest it’d be the 6’11 San Antonio Spurs center, but that would be false. Duncan had to learn about winning from David Robinson (Who won’t be listed here because he wasn’t even the best center of his generation) his rookie season when he won his first title and then couldn’t get past LeBron James in 2013. Additionally, Duncan went seven years between his fourth and fifth title. What was he doing those seven years? Obviously not winning.

Sorry, big fella. You’ve been mostly consistent, but we deserve even more than that.

Moses Malone

Malone enjoyed a long career with great production, but much was still left to be desired. Though he was able to carry his team into the playoffs, often deep into them, he won just one title; and most notably fell short in 1981 with the Houston Rockets.

In fact, Malone’s name may have been misspelled on his birth certificate and could actually be “MalNOe.”

Hakeem Olajuwon

No, not Raptors Legend Hakeem Olajuwon—we’re talking about the Rockets great. Olajuwon was a great player in his day. For his career, Olajuwon was ninth all-time in steals, 11th in points and the all-time leading shot blocker. However, despite these honorable distinctions, he never earned the admiration of his peers as an MVP, and his only two titles came during Jordan’s baseball hiatus, and lost one other Finals. I mean, you may as well hang an asterisk the size of Houston next to those titles. But at least he managed to win back-to-back titles, Oscar.

Olajuwon? More like “OlajuLOST.” Amirite?

David Robinson

The Admiral racked up two titles, an MVP, and a Defensive Player of the Year award over his illustrious 14-year career. Well, Robinson was only able to carry his team out of his own conference once, and his MVP award probably should have been Olajuwon’s that year. He taught Duncan how to win, but the student became the teacher as he would not have won either title without the Wake Forest product.

Shaquille O’Neal

Kids, there was a time when Shaq was more than just a television personality. Yes, he was also more than the plodding Suns, Cavs and Celtics center. You see, Shaq was a force never before seen by the league and never will see again. It has been said before that we’ll see another Jordan before another Shaq and that’s absolutely true.

O’Neal won four titles, was MVP of three of them, but had just one regular season MVP to boast. Additionally, he only is the eighth all-time leading scorer, which means that seven other people had more points in their career than he did.

Finally, O’Neal had a lot of nicknames over the course of his career, but GOAT isn’t one of them.

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The NBA has been around for decades yet we still cannot find the perfect player who fits all of the GOAT criteria. One day we will get the star that we deserve—one impervious to injury, lackluster teammates and mismatches. After all the time we’ve invested in the game why should we settle for less than perfection? We shouldn’t, that’s what.