There’s Always a Bigger GOAT

In Defense of Chasing Greatness

I have occasionally been accused of being a fair-weather fan, which I find bewildering. So in this post, I will counter this claim in a roundabout way without referencing Kuhnian paradigm shifts even once. Enjoy watching Normal Basketball, suckers!

Can you IMAGINE if your franchise player was traded away for some reason? Anyway...

Part 0: HOW I STARTED WATCHING THE NBA

I decided to root for Dwyane Wade because my cousins were rooting for Dirk Nowitzki to win the 2006 NBA Finals. The Heat, a marginal +130 underdog heading into the series, dropped the first two games before Wade staged a daring Game 3 comeback, then dominated the next three games decisively.

In many ways, Wade was the Shai-Gilgeous Alexander of his time, using skill and smooth athleticism to draw foul calls and exploit recent rule changes to the max.

Though I find Shai’s Flopperama much more insufferable.

2006 Wade carried the Heat to a title as a singular superstar in a way few have before or since (though 2003 Duncan and 1994/5 Hakeem come to mind). And you know what? It’s really fascinating to see just how hard one player can carry a team. What are the limits of that sort of game management?

I’ve always been fascinated by the evolution of what greatness looks like as basketball continues to develop and grow. We get to learn more about how basketball works by watching the next generation of superstars stand on the previous generation’s shoulders to dominate the game in new ways.

So let’s flash back to take a look at Dwyane Wade.

Part 1: DWYANE WADE

With the ball in his hands, D-Wade was a top-tier slasher and finisher. He had an all-time first step no one could stay in front of, and a distinctively shifty second step to lose the help defender, too. That helped set up his drive-and-kick game to create outside jumpers for teammates.

Let’s also go ahead and crown Dwyane Wade the GOAT lob passer. He threw both of these lobs to LeBron in the same Christmas game:

I think we forget how athletic LeBron was.

He could score, he could pass. And without the ball, he found ways to dominate with his elite athleticism and timing. Defensively, he’s duking it out with Michael Jordan for the greatest help defending guard ever. He was always lurking for steals or swats, his ball-targeting was phenomenal, and he was a big reason the Heat were able to start experimenting with smaller lineups in Obama’s second term.

At 0:45 he blocks 7-footer Brook Lopez twice in the same game.

Offensively, I think Wade’s alone as the greatest superstar cutter of all time—that’s the only way the fit with LeBron sort of worked. Even though Wade was never a consistent shooting threat from outside, he was incredible at moving without the ball until he was somehow open right under the basket, time and time again.

What a smile.

Speaking of which…

Part 2: LEBRON JAMES

I started rooting for LeBron as he snuck past the Pistons in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals. LeBron is an unbelievable athlete with an unbelievable understanding of the game, and it’s cool to see how far you can get just by maxing out both of those:

Maybe you’ve forgotten?

Everyone talks about how Steph changed the game. But so did LeBron. He raised expectations for NBA forwards and bigs in terms of skill and decision-making. He made cross-court passes not just cool but normal, like you have to do that in today’s game but in 2008 it was ridiculous to throw these sorts of passes. And for a wide open corner three? How good is that shot, anyway?

I remember after a game in 2008, my high school coach yelled at our shooter for going like 4-of-12 from deep. He said, “Did you think you would make 12 threes?” (That was the NBA record at the time, shared by Kobe Bryant and Donyell Marshall.) It was not clear what the right answer was, and we all ended up running for a long time.

So LeBron was way ahead in terms of valuing three point shots and creating them for his team. Once again, watching the next superstar unlocked our ability to imagine what higher-level play could look like.

LeBron was even more athletic than Wade, and his deep understanding let him leverage that athleticism much more effectively to set up his passing game. LeBron really could just carry a team if you gave him the ball and let him make all the decisions for you. He’s done this at a high level forever—his unbelievable athleticism has enabled unbelievable longevity—even though the all-time leading scorer’s bag is still basically four moves deep.

But even though he’s an underrated defender and the all-time greatest transition player, most of LeBron’s value is still generated with the ball in his hands. I wonder if there’s an easier way…

Part 3: STEPH CURRY & CO.

Who doesn’t like Steph Curry?! It’s incredible how he’s able to manage a game without the ball in his hands, despite being a 6’3 guard who can only contribute so much defensively. You could argue he’s the single greatest ceiling-raiser ever. That’s the value of his incredible shooting and tireless movement all over the court.

Like Wade, he’s a flashy passer, a bit turnover prone, and can’t create something with the ball every play the way LeBron could. But at age 37, he’s still out there showing the possibility of dominating the game in new ways.

Like it or not, we evaluate the next generation by the standards of the past.

• Giannis is Big LeBron. It’s pretty cool! He had an incredible athletic peak, and he’s still awesome. But the hits on shooting and passing do hurt. At least he gets a better whistle than LeBron.

• Luka is LeBron with a Bag. Okay, what if LeBron was an A+ shotmaker with a floater, consistent midrange touch, and a better whistle? But the hit on athleticism does hurt. And Luka’s shooting is always a bit iffy—LeBron’s pretty comparable from the free throw and three-point lines.

• Steph is still kinda by himself, which is outrageous, more on this soon.

But first, let’s take a minute to acknowledge who’s got next:

Part 4: NIKOLA JOKIC

Jokic is fascinating because he’s the next level of this. What if LeBron was bigger, stronger, a better shooter, and even (somehow) a better passer? We’ll call him Big LeBron with a Bag, and make him slower and less athletic just to make it fair. Be mad, haters!

Jokic manages games in a way we simply haven’t seen before. His weird push shot from eight is an absolute cleanup, and he seems to follow half of his own misses, making him even more efficient than his TS% or whatever would suggest. And my God, he’s an A+ passer, on par with Magic Johnson and Steve Nash, who does a great job of pinging the ball around to folks we wouldn’t have considered open five years ago.

That’s what I mean when I say that closely following each rising superstar teaches us more about how basketball works. Now when I watch any other big man in the league I go, why don’t you fake a pass into a no-look dime over your other shoulder for an easy layup you fool?! Why can’t Julius Randle lead the league in touches while holding the ball for half as long as Trae Young?

(Okay, that’s super unfair to Julius, who’s playing great—Jokic is special.)

While Denver has cheaped out on the roster year after year in open denial of the fact that you have to fill 240+ player minutes every game, Jokic has never looked more able to carry a team. Now this is state-of-the-art game management in a game where you can’t make your signature timely three:

Part 5: THE FUTURE

Anyway thanks for reading my article on why my GOAT is Victor Wembanyama, the 21-year-old phenom who looks to be at least 7’7? He’s already a great passer with superhuman length, freakish agility, and elite shooting. My GOAT throws it down with two hands for safety on a Little Tikes basket and pulls up from thirty.

Make Tim Duncan look like a guard why don’t you?

Who knows what he could become? Big Jokic? Humongo Steph?

In any event, you can be sure someone else is coming to get him.

The GOAT is always out there.

Just kidding...unless??!

P.S. I just made a spreadsheet and it turns out I’m working on 18 papers…oh right, that’s where all my blog writing has gone! Well, hopefully I’ll get to share more of it soon. In the meantime, it’s nice to take a break to write about sports.