The comparison between Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James never ends. Former NBA player and current sports broadcaster for NBC Sports Drew Gooden shared his insight on the GOAT discussion. According to him, Jordan and Bryant had the edge over James because they were coached by Phil Jackson. Meanwhile, LeBron had to work with different and less accomplished coaches.
“Now there’s one variable that we never talk about when this discussion comes up between Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. And there’s one guy that I think is the variable in this formula and that’s Phil Jackson. I mean if you take Phil Jackson out of this equation, how many championships does Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant have?” Gooden said.
“So LeBron James is in a unique situation outside of not having a Phil Jackson being able to go have to like a vagabond and go figure it out himself with multiple coaches, multiple organizations, multiple systems. With that being said, I think his book is a lot lot different than Michael Jordan’s and Kobe Bryant’s because I feel they had the structure with Phil Jackson most of their career and were successful with Phil Jackson.”
MJ won all of his six NBA championships while being coached by Phil Jackson. Similarly, Kobe has worked with different coaches but all five of his NBA titles came under Jackson. In contrast, LeBron won his three championships with three different coaches and is looking for the fourth one this season with yet another coach.
