Please bear with me here a minute.
There’s a point – an extremely interesting, and an extremely local, one – here. I promise you.
Jim Brown is not only the best running back of all-time, but he is also the best football player at any position in the game’s history.
Period.
End of statement.
End of story.
Not debatable.
Not now.
Probably not ever, at least until someone better comes along, if that should happen. Now, it could happen, but I’m guessing it won’t.
In his nine-year career with the Browns from 1957-65, Brown put up numbers that were so far beyond anything that anyone had done to that point, that they were off the charts. It didn’t seem real. It was as if Brown were some figure in a video game.
Truly.
Don’t believe it?
Then do the eye test, which is the ultimate determining factor. The eye – the eye in the sky, or your eye – doesn’t lie.
Watch old film of Brown, and when you do, you will see that he was so much better than his contemporaries. He was a man among boys. No one in the history of the game has outclassed the competition by such a wide margin.
It’s like the late, great Chuck Bednarik, the Pro Football Hall of Fame middle linebacker from the Philadelphia Eagles who played against Brown, once said, “Jim Brown is the closest thing to Superman that there’s ever been on a football field. He was stronger, faster and more powerful than anyone else, and he was virtually indestructible.”
So, understanding that, then, Cleveland has the best football football player of all-time.
That’s tremendously special – for Brown, the Browns, the city and, of course, the fans.
Now, does Cleveland also have the greatest basketball player ever?
Perhaps.
With what LeBron James has done throughout his career, especially in the playoffs this season in leading the Cavaliers to the NBA title, thus breaking Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought, he is certainly in the conversation for the greatest basketball player of all-time.
Charles Barkley doesn’t think so. The former NBA great-turned TV analyst, who has never been shy about expressing his opinions on anything and everything, especially basketball, has listed his top seven players of all-time as Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan.
Not bad. Barkley said his top five players – Jordan, Robertson, Russell, Abdul-Jabbar and Chamberlain – is set in stone. It’s not changing. So in his eyes, James will forever be on the outside looking in at that distinction.
And right now, James is also on the outside looking in, in terms of Barkley’s top seven.
According to a story in si.com. Barkley said, “I’m not going to just move him past Tim Duncan and Kobe. They didn’t just die.”
For the record, Sir Charles may not be among the five greatest Philadelphia 76ers ever, but that’s another story for another time.
The fact remains, though, that in the opinion of many other people who watch and know the game, James is on their top-five list. Like Jim Brown, who was a world-class lacrosse player at Syracuse, James is a physical freak, someone the game has never seen with his combination of size, strength, speed and quickness, the ability to play all five positions on the floor well, and with regularity, and the ability to excel in all facets of the game: scoring, rebounding, passing, defense and winning — yes, of course, that, too.
And right now, like Brown, who was just 29 and at the top of his game when he played his last year of football 51 years ago, James, who won’t turn 32 for another six months, is dominating overall like he has never done before. That’s incredible.
He has indeed stood the test of time, which is an extremely important ingredient when it comes to determining the greatness of a person in anything, including sports.
Anyone can flare up quickly and shine brightly, but can he do it for a long period of time? Ah, that’s the key.
Here’s another interesting question: Who is the greatest all-time Cleveland athlete, Brown or James? That is, has James been a better basketball player than Brown was a football player?
Before you answer that one, keep in mind that Brown, as mentioned, played nine seasons while James just finished his 13th season and there appears to be no immediate end in sight. Does James get added points in this debate because he has played longer?
Hmmmm.
Perhaps.
All of this adds even more sizzle to the fact that Brown handed the Larry O’Brien Trophy to James at the championship parade/celebration in Downtown Cleveland last Wednesday. Also, in James’ first game back in Cleveland in 2014 following his return, he bowed to Brown, who sitting at courtside, in a very pronounced way.
So people have been looking at that comparison for quite a while now.
Cool.
Really, really cool.
And finally, now back to Barkley . At least he got something right, something we’ve stated many times here.
“But I will say this about LeBron James: I’ve never seen a man coming out of high school who has handled the success, been a great player, never got in a stitch of trouble,” Barkley said. “It’s probably been the greatest career ever.”
Not the greatest player ever, though?
Just checking, Charles.
