The NBA GOAT debate is one of the most discussed things in basketball discourse.
The NBA GOAT debate is mainly between Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
While many people claim Jordan is the undisputed GOAT in NBA history, there are a lot of basketball fans who say it’s James.
However, whenever someone says the NBA GOAT isn’t Jordan or James, that catches a lot of people’s attention.
Stan Van Gundy says Nikola Jokic might be the best player in NBA history
Stan Van Gundy was on The Zach Lowe Show as the two talked about Nikola Jokic.
Lowe said that he thinks Jokic might be the best offensive player ever.
“I think Nikola [Jokic] might be the best offensive player in the history of the NBA. I think that’s on the table now for me.”
That prompted Van Gundy to say that he thinks Jokic might be the best player of all-time.
“Well he might be the best player in the history of the NBA.
“Here, here’s the thing. My son says this all the time, every sport, he’s more of a baseball guy, right?
“He goes, I understand the thought that you compare players to how well they did in the era they played in, but the evolution of athletes is we can probably say that the best 20 basketball players in history have probably played in the last 20 years, Zach.
“Those other guys are great, but if you took them for what they were in their time and dropped them in today’s game, a lot of those guys couldn’t even get in the league.
“And I’m talking about some guys who are in the top 75 all-time.
“And I don’t say that to disparage people. We evolve over time.
“Athletes are getting better. How can you look at a sport like track and field or swimming and see that the times keep improving and think in our sport, players don’t continue to get better and better.
“Nobody’s had a better career than LeBron [James] in the league and Jokic is on another planet.
“If I had to take one guy in history right now, not just in today, I’m taking Jokic.”
It’s too early to consider Nikola Jokic the GOAT
While Jokic is certainly on the path to potentially being in that GOAT discussion, it’s too early to include him just yet.
For as dominant as Jokic has been this decade, he just has one NBA Championship and one Finals MVP. Jokic does have three NBA MVP awards and could add a fourth this season.
If Jokic wants to be in the GOAT debate he needs to win a few more NBA titles.
However, if Jokic were to win another championship, MVP and NBA Finals MVP this season, it would cement him as one of the top-10 players of all-time.
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