Who’s your NBA greatest of all time?
Michael Jordan? LeBron James? Other?
Well, we have more of an answer from King James himself, as the Akron native weighed in on the basketball GOAT debate in a wide-ranging profile published Monday, June 9, by Time magazine.
‘I’m not taking nobody over me,’ LeBron James says of NBA GOAT debate
James did not hesitate when asked to weigh in on the basketball GOAT debate, according to Time.
“I’m not taking nobody over me,” James said. “There’s no question.”
But James did not dismiss the legacy of his contemporary, six-time NBA champ and Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, while shouting out several other NBA greats.
“I think Mike will say the same thing,” James said. “Rest his soul, Kobe will say the same thing. Magic will say the same thing. Bird will say the same thing. Shaq could say the same thing.”
“If there’s a general manager and he’s eyeballing all of us on a baseline, with the No. 1 pick, it’s gonna be hard not to take me, champ,” James added.
The GOAT debate as it relates to professional basketball is sure to rage on in perpetuity, but James has spent the last several years of his storied career checking yet more boxes.
On Feb. 7, 2023, James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, besting a record that had stood for nearly 40 years. James now has scored 43,440 regular season points (and counting, barring an unlikely retirement announcement this summer). For context, Abdul-Jabbar scored 38,387 career points in the regular season.
James, a four-time NBA champion, falls short of MJ by that measure, but his longevity in the sport and high level of play into his 40s creates a stout case for “greatest of all time.”
In 60 games played for the Los Angeles Lakers throughout the 2025-26 season, James averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game as a 41-year-old. He’s won championships with three different franchises, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, the hometown team that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2003.
If nothing else, the GOAT debate continues to create good fodder for sports radio talking heads. We’ll leave it up to NBA 2K video game GMs as to who they’d draft with an all-time No. 1 overall pick.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: LeBron James weighs in on NBA GOAT debate. LBJ or MJ?
