Opinion | Kobe Bryant’s The Last Dance appearance on ESPN series reignites GOAT debate with Michael Jordan and LeBron James
- While MJ is widely regarded as the greatest NBA player of all-time, James keeps getting thrown into the conversation even though he only has three titles
- However Bryant’s career still remains far superior to James, but not Jordan, when it comes to championships as he notched five
The 2011 movie Bad Teacher is a half-baked comedy flick starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel. While the movie is mostly forgettable Americana humour, there is one scene that has stood the test of time.
During a school dance, Segel’s character, gym teacher Russell Gettis, gets into an argument with one of the students about basketball’s GOAT. Sean, barely in his teens, is filled to the brim with recency bias, arguing LeBron James is the greatest NBA player of all-time, and not Michael Jordan. He alludes to James’ well-rounded game, which includes superior passing and rebounding, which is hard to argue with.
But Gettis’ character is having none of the young millennial’s illogical thought process, and delivers an aggravated rebuttal to Sean in brilliant comedic fashion. “Call me when LeBron has six championships,” says Gettis, as Sean instantly replies. “That’s your only argument?”
“It’s the only argument I need, Sean!”
The sporting world loves a GOAT debate, it’s the most subjective question looking for an objective answer. But Gettis has a point, you can’t argue a case very well if there aren’t titles to back it up. Dan Marino, Barry Sanders and Karl Malone have all heard this one too many times: if you don’t win the big one, you can forget about being mentioned in GOAT conversations.