Michael Jordan's children refuse to name the GOAT but Jasmine says Kobe should be part of the debate

Michael Jeffrey Jordan has always been the front-runner in the never-ending GOAT debate in basketball. But despite being widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time, Jordan made sure his kids didn't get involved in that discussion.

Back in 2020, The Breakfast Club podcast interviewed Mike's children from his first wife, Juanita. Surprisingly, Marcus, Jeffrey, and Jasmine refused to call their dad the GOAT, reasoning that we can't compare players from different eras.

"You can't debate it because the eras are different," said Marcus whom his siblings tasked to answer the question. "The game is so different now that I honestly feel like you can't have a serious debate. But it's going to happen."

Jasmine says don't forget about Kobe

Marcus admitted that he's had to defend his pops a few times on Twitter and say something about LeBron James . But MJ has PR people who monitor children's social media accounts, so when Mike found out that Marcus was engaged in a discussion with another user, he immediately told him to stay off Twitter.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey said that he has those conversations with his friends and close teammates, but otherwise, he says it's not worth the social media controversy. Jasmine agreed with her brothers that it's hard to compare different eras. But MJ's only daughter had a little extra to say.

"I do support LeBron and he's an incredible athlete but I'm more so having the conversations like y'all can't forget Kobe. Like come on now, you can't go straight from my pops to LeBron and just ignore that man."

Iverson also put Kobe behind Mike

Similarly, Hall of Famer Allen Iverson, who was drafted first overall in the 1996 Draft, where Kobe went 13th, also believes that The Black Mamba should be ranked next to His Airness in the all-time rankings .

"I've never seen nobody as competitive as him but Mike," Iverson said. "Like, when people talk about your favorite players or the best players in the world, I say Mike, and I say, Kobe, you know what I mean? And then everybody else."

Basketball's GOAT debate has always moved back and forth between Mike and LeBron. However, people forget that there was Kobe Bryant , who came up just one ring short of MJ's tally. Most referred to Kobe as the closest thing to Mike. But since two is the closest number to one, then why isn't Kobe number two?

Related: Draymond Green reveals two main reasons why Kobe Bryant isn’t included in the GOAT debate