Allen Iverson played against both Michael Jordan and LeBron James during his Hall of Fame NBA career.
So in the wake of James setting the NBA’s all-time career scoring record, with everyone debating the question of LeBron vs. MJ as the greatest player of all time, who better to ask than Iverson?
NBA insider Marc J. Spears posed that question to Iverson for a story on Andscape.com. Iverson, nicknamed the “The Answer,” ironically did not seem inclined to answer the question, saying he hated it.
“I hate it because I love both of them so much and both of them did so much for our game,” Iverson said.
Then Iverson plunged ahead into one of the greatest NBA debates of our time.
“LeBron, I think, to me is the best overall basketball player that we’ll ever see,” Iverson told Spears. “If you look in the dictionary and look up basketball player, there’ll be a picture of LeBron. But for me it’s so different because Mike was everything to me. He gave me the vision. He made me want to play basketball. He’s my everything. I wanted to actually be like him, like the commercial, ‘Be like Mike,’ I really wanted to be him. I’m still starstruck every time I see him. I’m still nervous every time. Because he’s Mike to me. He’s my guy.
“So there’ll never be no one at the top of my list besides Mike. But LeBron is just everything that you want in a basketball player. He’s a total package. He’s God’s gift to the basketball world.”
So, Iverson picked James, it seems (“LeBron, I think, to me is the best overall basketball player that we’ll ever see”) although Jordan clearly remains his personal favorite. Either way, it was an incredibly diplomatic and nuanced response to a tough question that really doesn’t have a correct answer.
Iverson, 47, was a legend in his own right, making 11 NBA All-Star teams and winning league MVP honors in 2001.
