LeBron James Criticized By NBA Legends For 'GOAT' Title Claim

LeBron James has come under severe criticism from former basketball players for calling himself the “greatest of all time” during the airing of the seventh episode of his show “More Than An Athlete” on ESPN+.

The Los Angeles Lakers star was speaking about the Cleveland Cavaliers come-from-behind win over the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals in 2016. They were 3-1 down before they won the next three which included two on the road to win the title – Cleveland’s first pro-sports title in 52 years.

James believes it is one of his greatest accomplishments especially since the Warriors were being described as one of the greatest teams ever assembled. He revealed that after the win it made him feel like the greatest ever, which has not gone down with some of the older NBA legends.

“The first wave of emotion was when everyone saw me crying, like, that was all for 52 years of everything in sports that's gone on in Cleveland. And then after I stopped I was like -- that one right there made you the greatest player of all time,” James said.

“Everybody was just talking — how (the Warriors) were the greatest team of all time, like it was the greatest team ever assembled. And for us to come back, you know, the way we came back in that fashion, I was like, ‘You did, you did something special.’ That’s probably one of the only times in my career I felt like, oh, s---, like you did something special.”

NBA legends Kevin McHale and Isiah Thomas were not impressed with James’ self-proclamation about being the greatest as they believe it disrespects other greats of the game like Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson.

James’ tally of titles does not match Jordan or Abdul-Jabbar and McHale believes that the GOAT title should be given and not claimed by an athlete. And Thomas is of the opinion that greatness comes when you don’t speak about it.

"That’s disrespectful to Bill Russell ... Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ... Michael (Jordan) ... Larry (Bird) and Magic (Johnson),” McHale said, as quoted on Fox Sports. “You don’t need to say that about yourself. Let other people say that for you.”

“It’s disrespectful to other players who came before you that were great, great players. You can’t compare eras ... I didn’t like the way that sounded,” he added.

“There’s a certain thing about greatness,” Thomas said. “That demands that you have humility ... I have never heard Michael Jordan say he’s the greatest of all time — even though he may think that. You just don’t come out and say that.”