"Gladiator,” GOATs, and the multiverse of madness

Or, "why I gave up on fighting the notion that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player who ever lived."

One of the final, impactful pieces of writing by my guy Jonathan Tjarks before his passing was his take on Michael Jordan’s place on the list of all time greats.

He noted, with some points I hadn’t heard or considered before, a few ways in which Michael Jordan’s style would struggle against modern teams. Whereas a LeBron parachuted into the 80s or 90s would wreak havoc upon that era, Jordan would be facing some unique obstacles if he tried to do today what he did in the 90s. To me it’s always been obvious that LeBron was the better basketball player. However, Tjarks made note of the power of MJ’s story. The legend of Jordan is the real reason people don’t readily accept the idea that LeBron is better than Jordan and why MJ remains the “GOAT.”

I used to think that the superior numbers of us millennials would inevitably overcome the lesser numbers of GenX and out vote them over who the GOAT of the NBA truly was. Then I realized it wouldn’t, because millennials never cared as much about LeBron James as GenX (or anyone who experienced him) cares about Jordan. LeBron will never surpass him.

Recently someone posted one of these classic engagement pieces on Twitter/X.com and I took the bait while exhibiting a new sense of what defines greatness.

This initiated a wave of replies and debate. Most of the pushback centered on why Tim Tebow was not actually one of the best quarterbacks to play the game and not even as good as Cam Newton would prove to be just a few years later in the same role.

It may be true that in 2010 Cam Newton was a better power-option quarterback than Tim Tebow had been in the four years prior. It may be true that Urban Meyer could have fared better in Florida had Newton been there to take over rather than getting kicked out and banished to the JUCO realm before resurfacing at Auburn. It’s unquestionably true that Lamar Jackson was a more explosive runner than either of them and that Joe Burrow had the most dominant season of any quarterback in college football history.

So why Tim Tebow? How could you argue he’s the GOAT? Why does the legend of MJ overcome the argument for LeBron?

Well, have any of you ever seen the movie Gladiator?