There are three things certain in life: death, taxes and the NBA GOAT debate. For the last 50 years, basketball fans around the world have tried to convince one another that one player stands alone as the Greatest of All Time.

Let’s get something out of the way first. Greatest is very different from best. If we argued about the best player of all time, it would be more about statistics such as how many points they scored. Are these the right criteria for determining the greatest? Instead, the right questions include: who had the most success? Who had a killer mentality? How do they compare with their peers? These are just some questions that build a GOAT legacy for a player.

First, I put together a top-ten list of players most often voted as the GOAT. Here is the list. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Larry Bird. Kobe Bryant. Wilt Chamberlain. Stephen Curry. Kevin Durant. LeBron James. Magic Johnson. Michael Jordan. Shaquille O’Neal.

To be honest, who are we kidding? Let’s go here.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Kobe Bryant. Wilt Chamberlain. LeBron James. Michael Jordan.

Let’s keep going and cut it down to two. Since Wilt Chamberlain only cared about numbers, he hogged the ball quite a bit and took an inexplicable 39.5 shots a game in his record-breaking 1962 season, where he averaged 50 points per game.

If you somehow get your hands on some old basketball tape from the ’62 season, you’ll see that Wilt’s teammates always rushed the ball to him every single possession. It was like a youth league game where there was some six-foot, two-inch, 12-year-old carrying a bad team to victory.

Don’t get me wrong, Kobe Bryant is a top 10 player of all time, but he can’t compete with the other two remaining on this list. Sorry, Kobe.

It’s down to two. LeBron or Jordan. As of now, LeBron is just starting his 23rd NBA season, a record-breaking accomplishment. He still has a year or two to continue his campaign for being the GOAT. But to me, the GOAT is….

Michael Jordan. This was an easy choice to make. Jordan never tried to assume the role of a GM (general manager) like LeBron, who has tried over and over again. He instead used his greatness and his talent to lure other players to his team.

LeBron James, sort of like Kobe, has imploded so many good situations. He left the Miami Heat in 2014 just so he could “Finish his story and come back to Cleveland”. That Heat front office was awesome, with Erik Spoelstra as the coach and Pat Riley as an executive, so I could easily imagine James winning many more championships had he stayed.

Sure, the 3-1 comeback against the Warriors in 2016 helped him, but three more championships would have helped him so much more. Sure, the Bulls had a great team, but so did the early 2010s Miami Heat.

What did LeBron do again? Oh yeah, he left. But to be honest, even if LeBron had the same amount of championships as Michael Jordan, MJ would still be the GOAT. How many players have never lost in the Finals? Little to none. Besides Michael Jordan, of course. 6-0. He’s never lost. And some people are out here talking about four titles in ten tries and saying it’s “greatness”.

Well, I’ve been playing and watching basketball since I was five, and every year, as I watch hours and hours of basketball tapes, my understanding of the game deepens. I think I’m knowledgeable enough to write something like this. It matters because a GOAT is someone you admire, the gold standard for a certain thing.

Usain Bolt is the GOAT of short-distance running, most people say. Michael Phelps is widely recognised as the GOAT of swimming. In their respective sports, these two are the gold standard people look up to. So if the GOAT is someone you look up to and try to emulate, then the answer matters so much to me, because it’s about who I look up to. Who is my gold standard? Who do I wanna be like?

I would take the man who is loyal. Who sticks with one team. Who doesn’t leave or break up a team just because a teensy-tiny thing didn’t go his way. I would take the man with the killer mentality, psychotic even, one of the main reasons why MJ was so successful.

Well, I know what you readers are thinking – Your name is Jordan! Of course you’re gonna pick Michael! But let me say one thing from the bottom of my heart. If I weren’t named for Jordan, I would still choose him as my GOAT. Heck, if my name were Wilt I wouldn’t pick the man! In this way, I’m like my father. He’s seen Jordan play, and he’s also seen LeBron and Curry play. Yet Michael Jordan still stands out as the definitive GOAT. For him, Michael simply dominated the sport like no other. End of discussion.

Here is another example of Jordan’s “psychotic” mentality. When Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone robbed Jordan in 1997 of the MVP (Most Valuable Player) award, it wasn’t Malone’s fault. He didn’t rig the votes. He didn’t say things behind his back. But Jordan convinced himself he did, resulting in the complete dismantling of Malone and his team in the 1997 finals.

This was when Jordan had his famous “flu game”, in which he dropped 38 points on Malone’s head and hit a game winning three in the closing seconds, all the while suffering from food poisoning. That’s crazy, almost ludicrous.

Michael will eat you alive. Michael is a killer. Michael will not stop until he breaks you. All were probably said of him at least once by commentators. As for LeBron, a player notoriously known for flopping (exaggerating contact from another player to get a foul called against them) and being “soft” (avoiding contact and complaining to refs, to the point where he loses his composure), he is no competition.

Yes, I acknowledge that Jordan complains at times too, but you would never see him on his knees like an angry child in a candy shop. Once again, the question is, who do I wanna be like? Another point for Jordan – “If I could be like Mike.” (The 1992 Gatorade ad.)