Why Do We Need To Name a G.O.A.T.?

For whatever reason, we are stuck in that age old tradition or having to determine who the greatest player is.  Sports is all about debating players, teams and eras so it stands to reason that arguing over who's the greatest has become a sport of its own.

It has been a big topic of late. In February, Tom Brady and his New England Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl championship -- two more than any other quarterback. He owns a slew of records and certainly finds his name among the NFL greats. The more he does, the more the conversation happens.

In basketball, here we go with the LeBron James-Michael Jordan argument again. LeBron has been climbing the all-time rankings in assists and points (just passing Jordan for fourth place) which strengthen LeBron's fans' arguments and makes Jordan fans dig in a little more. This isn't a new debate (it seems we've been having it a lot since the Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA Finals) and will likely be going on as long as there is an NBA ... or until the next guy approaches that level of excellence and joins the argument.

Again, this isn't new. Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams. Mantle or Ruth. The pound for pound greatest boxer. Gretzky or Howe. Wilt or Russell. The only thing that has changed is our ability to view those great exploits due to video tape and YouTube and the myriad of statistics and analytics we now use to determine who is more valuable. Staples like batting average, points per game and touchdown runs just tell the whole story anymore.

There in-lies the other issue about these kinds of debates. We all want to hold on to our era.  Our guy. What we saw and how we felt when we saw it. Most people -- not all -- that say LeBron is the greatest NBA player ever tend to be in their 30s or younger. Jordan defenders tend to be in their 40s or older. You also have those older school guys who will still say Russell, Wilt or Kareem. For a 50 year old, it is near sacrilege to say that anyone is better than Jordan and dismisses today's NBA. For a younger fan, they may not appreciate the magnitude of what Jordan did in the era where he played.

The problem is that we miss out on greatness. While it is fine to celebrate Jordan's legacy, sometimes we squash the accomplishments of another. We miss out on witnessing (no pun intended) LeBron's era of basketball. And those who just wave off what Jordan was are missing out on their history.

I'll soon be 44 years old and the memories and feelings of watching Magic Johnson will probably never be duplicated. Magic is one of the greats but is rarely considered the greatest. That's fine with me because he's my favorite athlete in any sport. And that doesn't stop me from admiring what Jordan was doing or what LeBron is doing now.

While you are spending all your energy fighting an impossible fight and missing out on life, there could be another guy in twenty years that will get that fan base ready to proclaim him as the greatest of all time.