{"id":719219,"date":"2026-06-06T15:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/719219\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:25:09","slug":"two-time-nba-champion-shares-the-one-reason-he-ranks-lebron-james-as-goat-ahead-of-michael-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/719219\/","title":{"rendered":"Two-time NBA Champion shares the one reason he ranks LeBron James as GOAT ahead of Michael Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane Battier<\/a> has a funny but revealing reason for putting LeBron James<\/a> ahead of Michael Jordan in the NBA GOAT debate.<\/p>\n

Battier played alongside LeBron during the Miami<\/a> Heat\u2019s back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013, giving him a perspective shaped by both personal experience and bias.<\/p>\n

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His reasoning was delivered with a self-deprecating twist, but it also highlighted how much LeBron shouldered during his peak years in Miami.<\/p>\n

Shane Battier gives LeBron James the edge over Michael Jordan<\/p>\n

In a clip shared by Heat Culture<\/a>, Battier explained why those two Miami titles still influence how he sees the LeBron-Jordan debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor as good as you think he was, he was that much better. I\u2019m biased, but when people say LeBron or MJ, I say LeBron did something twice that I don\u2019t think Jordan could ever do once. He won two NBA titles with Shane Battier as his starting PF. I love Mike, one of the greatest of all time, but LeBron did it twice with me as his bum ass PF\u2026.. The force, intelligence, he didn\u2019t have a weakness when he was in his prime. There was no answer for him. He was like the Queen on the chessboard. Could do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Luke Hales\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Battier is selling himself short. Across his three seasons with Miami, he averaged just over five points and two rebounds per game, but his value was never about box-score volume.<\/p>\n

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He was a 3-and-D specialist who guarded bigger players, spaced the floor, took charges, and helped the Heat\u2019s star-studded lineups fit together. He even stepped up with six three-pointers in Game 7 of the 2013 Finals.<\/p>\n

LeBron James\u2019 Miami peak fuels his case as the greatest ever<\/p>\n

Rich Paul recently put a new spin on the debate, calling Jordan the GOAT but LeBron the best player ever.<\/p>\n

That argument is strongest when focused on LeBron\u2019s Miami years. From 2010 to 2014, he reached four straight Finals, won two championships, collected two regular-season MVPs, and was named Finals MVP twice.<\/p>\n

His 2012-13 season was nearly flawless, with 26.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and 56.5 percent shooting from the field.<\/p>\n

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Jordan\u2019s case is built on unmatched peak dominance, six rings, six Finals MVPs, and a level of scoring control nobody has matched. LeBron\u2019s case leans on versatility, playmaking, defense, efficiency, and unmatched longevity.<\/p>\n

The greatest peak conversation also includes Shaquille O\u2019Neal from 2000 to 2002, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the early 1970s, Larry Bird from 1984 to 1986, and Stephen Curry<\/a> from 2015 to 2017.<\/p>\n

But Battier\u2019s point is simple. At his best, Miami LeBron could solve anything, even winning titles with a self-proclaimed \u201cbum\u201d who was actually one of the smartest role players of his era.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Battier has a funny but revealing reason for putting LeBron James ahead of Michael Jordan in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,2327,6390,3004,459,260176,82,13596],"class_list":["post-719219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lebron-james","tag-miami","tag-michael-jordan","tag-nba","tag-shane-battier","tag-sports","tag-stephen-curry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}