"It makes me see that people don't have a very good perspective" - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on why not being mentioned in GOAT debate makes him cringe
The NBA's greatest player of all time conversation has long been a barbershop classic and a never-ending debate that fuels sports radio and lights up social media. But somewhere along the way, the narrative tightened its scope, trimming off the first few golden decades of basketball.
The GOAT conversation, it seems, has become a post-1990s affair, dominated by highlights of Michael Jordan, debates over LeBron James' longevity and flashes of Kobe Bryant's killer instinct.
What gets lost in modern memory is the era that laid the very foundation.
Abdul-Jabbar's distaste
One of those names that has been overlooked is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time NBA champion and six-time league MVP. For someone like that, being routinely excluded from the GOAT debate is an oversight.
"It makes me see that people don't have a very good perspective," Abdul-Jabbar said flatly. "I saw Wilt Chamberlain play. Nobody that's talking all that GOAT stuff now probably even saw him play. I saw Bill Russell play … They [the fans] have no idea."
At 7-foot-2, Abdul-Jabbar was a force that defined consistency and brilliance for two decades. He retired in 1989 as the NBA's all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points, a record that stood unchallenged for nearly four decades until James surpassed it in 2023.
But stats alone don't capture his impact. He won titles with both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers, revolutionized the center position with his unstoppable skyhook and delivered under pressure in an era crowded with Hall of Fame talent.
But the passage of time has diluted public memory. In the digital era, greatness is too often measured in algorithmic popularity, not historical substance. Wilt Chamberlain recorded NBA2K-like numbers and set almost every record that has been the standard in the league. Bill Russell, the ultimate winner with 11 titles in 13 seasons, anchored the Boston Celtics dynasty and redefined what it meant to lead on and off the court.
Related: "Only two guys on that team could fight" - Charles Barkley says "Bad Boy" label for Detroit was highly exaggerated
The televised era
Abdul-Jabbar's frustration doesn't stem solely from personal exclusion. It's the larger erasure of basketball's pre-1990s greatness from popular discourse. The NBA's archive of televised games from the 1960s and 70s is sparse and social media rarely revisits those early battles in black-and-white or grainy film.
Without the highlights, the constant media reinforcement or the perception of greatness becomes skewed.
"Because it was long ago, they don't see him play on TV," Abdul-Jabbar said of Chamberlain. "That affects their perspective on who's great and who's the greatest."
Chamberlain once scored 100 points in a game, but no video footage of that game is present. What hurts is not just being left out of the debate, but seeing entire eras and players — like Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West — get reduced to trivia answers rather than living pillars of the sport.
For Abdul-Jabbar, who played 20 seasons, averaged over 24 points and 11 rebounds per game during his peak and led the Lakers through the Showtime era, the silence is louder than the praise.
Even the narrative around GOAT status has shifted. Rings are emphasized, but Russell's 11 titles are glossed over. Longevity is admired, but Abdul-Jabbar's two-decade dominance is undervalued. His activism, standing alongside Muhammad Ali and speaking against injustice, adds another layer to his legacy, making him a cultural figure as well as a basketball icon.
And yet, despite all this, his name often floats just outside the heated center of the GOAT debate.
Related: "Everybody say he is the greatest of all time. I always say what criteria are you using" - George Gervin on why he questions Michael Jordan's status as the GOAT
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 12, 2025, where it first appeared.
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