The GOAT debate has been reignited since LeBron James won his fourth ring and fourth finals MVP. This moved SuperSonics legend, Shawn Kemp, to share his thought on the discussion.
During an appearance on The Dab Roast YouTube series, Kemp said there is no way LeBron would be able to surpass Michael Jordan.
"I'mma say Michael Jordan. I think LeBron James has done great, but only thing Michael Jordan ever did was win," Kemp told host Chris Crayzie around the episode's 14-minute mark.
Kemp knows the dominance and wrath of Jordan firsthand. As a member of the SuperSonics, Kemp and Gary Payton helped lead Seattle to the 1996 NBA Finals where they met Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Although they were able to pull off two wins, the Bulls were too much for them to handle and Jordan closed out the series in Game 6.
Most LeBron fans would point to the way the Bulls were beautifully crafted to cater to Jordan, and would say that LeBron had to leave Cleveland to get a fair shake. Yet Kemp subscribes to the idea that Jordan pushed the Bulls to another level of excellence that can't be coached or created.
"There's players as myself who haven't won a championship that were very good. There's guys who I've seen win championships, they're good players, but they had a good team also around them," Kemp said. "And I look at Michael Jordan, he played with the Bulls, and he had Scottie Pippen. But without Michael being there, the Bulls wasn't gonna win the championship. It came from Michael Jordan."
Kemp shared this opinion while indulging in hefty dabs. In the years since his retirement, Kemp has become a strong marijuana advocate. Not only has he opened a cannabis store in Seattle, but he also admitted to using weed as alternative medication throughout his career.
"For me, with arthritis and different pains in your body, [marijuana] is the perfect solution," Kemp recently told TMZ Sports. "Sometimes guys don't like to pop the pills, some guys, they don't wanna take those chances, so this is another way of taking care of yourself professionally, with doing it the right way."
Watch Kemp's full appearance on The Dab Roast above. Scott Mckinley, producer and showrunner of The Dab Roast, said of the experience, "It was an honor to sit down and speak candidly with the man behind some of the most historic dunks in NBA history."
