Michael Jordan is the best. When someone compares him to someone else, the conversation stops. But a former NBA star recently made that exact comparison. He wasn't talking about a current player or a peer from his own time; he was talking about a legend who he thinks never got the credit he deserved.

That former star is John Starks, who played for the New York Knicks. He talked about Julius Erving on the Strong Talk Podcast. Starks didn't hold back:

"I don't think they give Dr. J enough credit. If you watch Dr. J back in the day, oh my god! He's my favorite player growing up. But they got to see Dr. J after he left the NBA, I mean, when they joined the leagues… but Dr. J was so special. He was the Michael Jordan of the 70s and early 80s."

"He don't get enough credit. He don't get talked about enough for being one of the best players ever. Dr. J carried this league for a long time to help it get to this point until Magic and Bird came into this league."

Erving played in the ABA for five years, winning three MVPs, three scoring titles, and two championships with the New Jersey Nets. The problem is that most fans never saw it. The credit gap exists because his best basketball was played in a league that history mostly forgot.

What Erving did after he got to the NBA makes Starks' comparison even harder. He was an All-Star in all 11 of his NBA seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, won the MVP award in 1981, and won a title in 1983. His skill as a slasher was his primary weapon, which he used to dazzle fans with poster dunks.

Erving won the first ABA Dunk Contest in 1976 with his famous free-throw-line dunk, which Jordan later built on during his stints in the NBA Dunk Contest.

Erving received All-Star selection for all 16 years of his professional career, which included five seasons in the ABA and eleven seasons in the NBA.

No résumé summary can fully show that kind of consistent excellence in two leagues, two eras, and two different competitive environments.

Michael Jordan thinks the GOAT title is pointless

The existence of greatness across different eras makes the GOAT debate more difficult, because the athlete who holds the top spot has no interest in participating.

Michael Jordan shut down the argument in the most direct way possible during a recent interview with Gayle King on CBS News. Jordan told King, "There's no such thing as G.O.A.T. to me.

“It's not to me. You know, it's only because I think, you know, we are transcended from other people, other athletes. We learn from other athletes. We progress the game as we move further. To say that one is better than the other is not really right."

The GOAT debate usually comes back to Jordan and LeBron James, and fans on both sides are very passionate about it.

But since Jordan always refused to put anyone, even himself, above the rest, the basketball world may have to live with that question forever. Perhaps that's the point His Airness is making.

Read more at the Air Jordan Chronicles!

Written by

Utsav Gupta

Edited by

Siddharth Rawat