Chicago Bulls: Isiah Thomas thinks LeBron will be the GOAT over MJ

The long-time foe of Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan, Detroit Pistons guard Isiah Thomas, doesn’t give him much respect in the all-time greats debate.

The saltiness apparently still lingers in the relationship between the former Detroit Pistons Hall-of-Fame point guard Isiah Thomas and the Chicago Bulls legendary shooting guard Michael Jordan. The recent premier of the 10-part ESPN/ABC/Netflix documentary series highlighting the Bulls 1997-98 title-winning team “The Last Dance” showed a lot of the animosity that still exists between Thomas and Jordan.

That friction between the two Hall-of-Fame guards that played during similar times in the NBA really showed through in a recent interview he did talking about the GOAT comparison between Jordan and the Los Angeles Lakers superstar forward LeBron James. Thomas doesn’t usually even give Jordan the edge over a player like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, let alone LeBron.

In a recent piece with Sports Illustrated, it was detailed how Thomas believes LeBron will be the greatest player in NBA history when it’s all said and done for his playing days in the league. He mentioned how the legacy of LeBron can keep ascending if the Lakers are able to win a title this year, and how he compares with the likes of Jordan and Kareem.

Here’s more on what this piece from Sports Illustrated and Thomas had to say on the subject.

"“I admire his insatiable appetite to be on top and stay on top,” said Thomas. “I’ve never seen a player dominate so many statistical categories. We’ve had players dominate certain areas, but we’ve never seen a player that truly does it all. And he’s done it, without fail, for 17 years. For now, Kareem is the best that’s ever done it. But by the time he’s done, LeBron James will be the best we have ever seen play the game of basketball.”"

Not even putting Jordan on top in the current day, prior to LeBron winning any more titles, is a bit disrespectful. But that “Bad Boys” Pistons team usually has really hard feelings toward Jordan and the Bulls squads that were winning all of those titles in the 1990’s.

Thomas and the Pistons reigned supreme in the NBA prior to the Bulls taking the torch from them in 1991. He won two NBA Championships with the Pistons (in 1989 and 1990) to go along with 12 All-Star selections, one Finals MVP, and five All-NBA Team selections.

Meanwhile, Jordan won six titles, got 14 All-Star selections, six Finals MVP’s, and five  NBA MVP’s, during his playing days with the Bulls and Washington Wizards. A lot of Jordan’s accolades trump even what LeBron has registered in his more than 15 years in the league.

LeBron is currently competing with the top-seeded Lakers in the Western Conference Finals to try and knock off the upset-minded three-seed Denver Nuggets. The West Finals are split at one game a piece after the Lakers won on Sep. 20 in Game 2.