The one question in sports that will never be truly answered is, 'Who is the greatest player of all time?' As meaningless as the debate is, it will never stop fans and pundits from fighting over their opinions.
As the years have passed, most have narrowed the conversation to LeBron James and Michael Jordan. Who's your pick? The 6-foot-9 locomotive with eye-popping athleticism? Or the 6-foot-6 guard with the most striking offensive game ever? Neither, according to Allen Iverson .
"What bother me is when they do talk about [the greatest of all time], LeBron is great first of all ... when they talk about comparing him to Mike [Jordan], I don't understand how they don't have the debate with him in Kobe [Bryant]," Iverson said in a video posted by UNGUARDED . "You forgot? They forgot? I really think they forgot. The Mamba, man ... certified serial killer, man."
Iverson doubles down
"The Answer" and "The Mamba" connected early in their careers. They shared that rare intensity, that DNA that fueled their awe-inspiring willingness to win games. For that reason, both players saw a portion of themselves in one another. The two guards battled it out for the game's best wing in the post- Jordan era. In their pursuit of greatness, they reached an unwavering respect for each other's game.
The former Philadelphia 76er hasn't shied from making his feelings about Bryant public since his retirement, especially since his passing. After his 2018 remarks, The Answer wanted 'answers' to why his classmate isn't up there in the GOAT debate.
"I've never seen nobody as competitive as him but Mike," he said of Kobe on the Showtime series "Headliners." "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."
The peak of fearless competition
The moment these two competitors held on to was Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals. This was a legendary duel between two of the best prospects of the 1996 NBA Draft. After five years of nonstop comparisons, they met face-to-face at the pinnacle of their sport.
Iverson, 53 minutes and 48 points later, displayed a ruthless desire to show up to his peer. This barely 6-foot tall basketball assassin put the 11-0 powerhouse Los Angeles Lakers in their place, and he backed up whatever trash he talked on the court.
Kobe wouldn't have been Kobe if he hadn't possessed this psycho-mentality that pushed him to outwork every guy he matched up with. And the NBA wouldn't have been where it was then and even where it is now without these two.
Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the 80s revived the NBA in so many ways. And after MJ's dominant reign in the 1990s—when no other player in the league could see him eye-to-eye—fans finally got what they wanted. Two guys with a very similar aura and a ruthless, merciless mindset fueled them to give us performances we'll remember for decades on end. To see these two toe-to-toe in the NBA Finals was a treat.
Related: John Stockton says neither Michael Jordan, LeBron James, nor Kobe Bryant are the GOAT: "Well, I wouldn't use those three"
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