As a member of the Houston Rockets, Hakeem Olajuwon won back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. Olajuwon is seen as one of the best big men to ever play the game and has garnered the respect of his opponents. Since his prime was during the 90s, Olajuwon got to compete against Michael Jordan, who is highly regarded as the best player in the history of the NBA. LeBron James, who is a more current player in the NBA, is also considered to be a GOAT, which has led to a ton of debate as to who is the best.
While speaking to CNBC, Olajuwon was asked to weigh in on the GOAT debate, where he gave a pretty strong answer. In the clip below, Olajuwon states that MJ is far superior to LeBron and that the comparisons between the two are simply unfair.
Per Olajuwon:
“When people start comparing him with Jordan, then that’s not a fair comparison. Jordan was a far more superior player in a very tough league, and he was very creative. That’s not taking away anything from LeBron because he is a great player, but it is not a fair comparison because Jordan is a far superior player.”
This is a strong assessment of the situation as even the most staunch LeBron haters will admit that the debate is fairly close. Needless to say, players of a certain era will always have a bias towards said time-period.
[Via]