The following article first appeared on BasketballNetwork.net:

In an interview on YouTube with The Universe Galaxy, former NBA player Rick Mahorn came out saying there is no such thing as the best player in league history, and that we can only judge the best teams in NBA history collectively.

There is no such thing as the greatest player

The GOAT debate is one of the heated topics of discussion among NBA fans and analysts today, and it always brings a lot of controversy. Everyone has their own opinion on who the best player is in NBA history, and it usually depends on personal preferences for specific players. Names like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to a certain degree, typically show up in these debates.

But according to Mahorn, there is no such thing as the GOAT.

During his chat, Mahorn argued that he doesn't believe there is a single greatest player in NBA history because basketball is a team sport. He contends that if you are going to discuss those things, you can debate over who was the most outstanding team in NBA history instead.

“I really don’t believe in the greatest player because you can’t have the greatest player without four other guys," Mahorn said. "That is just life because we are not boxers, we are not tennis players. It’s going to be five guys, it’s going to be a team. How do you separate it I just don’t know.”

Debate for the best team in NBA history

Mahorn’s approach and thinking about this topic are different from what many fans and analysts have said, but they are valid arguments. Basketball is a team sport, and we’ve seen numerous times that great individuals never win titles by themselves. They need to be surrounded by other great players that will help them out along the way because the reality is nobody can do it by themselves — no matter how good they are individually. On top of that, it’s hard to measure players’ greatness because they played in different eras under different rules.

Mahorn also made a great point in saying these things are more straightforward in individual sports like tennis, where it’s a 1-on-1 matchup between two athletes. In that case, maybe it’s more sensible to talk about the greatest teams in NBA history instead of the best players

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