A few months back, ESPN released its “Top 100 Athletes of the 2000s”, determined by over 70,000 votes from ESPN contributors.

Lists like this will never please everyone, but it is ultimately a collection of opinions. “Greatness” is such an ambiguous term that the criteria can vary wildly from person to person. One might say it’s purely about statistics. Others may decide it’s more about the impression one leaves upon the sport.

So we can determine that there are no wrong answers, right?

Actually, no. There was one scenario in ESPNs list that was objectively wrong. That’s right, this scenario, based on opinions, was wrong, meaning that opinions themselves can be wrong.

Lebron James – 4th.
Novak Djokovic – 11th.

Sorry, ESPN, but this is an absurdity.

LeBron is great, maybe even the greatest, but compared to Novak Djokovic, he is a shark next to a killer whale.

Stifle your groans, basketball fans.

If you disagree with this take, there are three possible reasons.

The first is that you prefer basketball to tennis, and therefore assign greater esteem to Lebron’s accomplishments. The second, you generally dislike Djokovic. Third, you don’t grasp the comprehensive nature of his dominance.

You may belong to one of these camps or all of them, but your opinions aren’t influenced by actual sporting achievements; they can’t be.

In order to unpack this, we need to do away with the grandiose arguments of “greatness”. They’re rarely productive and often embarrassing, loaded with hyperbole about “transcending the sport” and “changing the game” which often amounts to nothing.

We’ll start with the numbers, and work downward from there.

The stats

First of all, we must acknowledge one thing about the way we view LeBron’s numbers against Novak’s: He plays a team sport. He is not in total control of every element of what transpires on the court, and not solely responsible for the numbers he holds. So while we view his statistics, they’re made to be viewed as a “whole” rather than a list of standalone achievements.

Having said that, let’s go.

James has four NBA Championships, four Finals MVPs, four Regular Season MVPs, is a 20x time NBA All Star, 13x NBA First Team, 3x NBA Second Team, 4x NBA Third Team, 3x Olympic gold and is the leading scorer in the history of the NBA.

When viewed as a complete set of career achievements it’s easy to see why many consider him the GOAT. But since the fine people of ESPN decided to pit this GOAT against other GOATs, we must dissect these numbers further; the debate demands it.

He has fewer championships than other team-leading players such as Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. He has fewer Finals MVPs than Jordan. He has fewer Regular Season MVPs than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell and Jordan.

LeBron James is guarded heavily by Josh Green. (Photo by Christopher Pike/Getty Images)

He leads the NBA in All NBA Team selections and All Time Scoring, but has only won the NBA Scoring title once (compared to 10x for Michael Jordan) and has never won Defensive Player of the Year.

While he has the All Time Scoring record, few called his predecessor in that category, the legendary Kareem, the outright GOAT.

So with this (limited) context, we can see that while he doesn’t hold the outright lead in all the metrics by which we measure greatness, he has been omnipresent in the league for over two decades and has been a consistently great performer in almost every way.

A compelling case for NBA GOAT, but not one that spares him from comparison and debate with his contemporaries, and certainly not one that puts him clear of Jordan.

Now let’s stack those achievements up next to Novak’s.

And we will preface this by acknowledging that Novak plays an individual sport, in which he is responsible for everything that transpires on his side of the court – racquet smashes included.

Novak has 428 weeks at number 1, plus 24 Grand Slam Singles titles, 40 Masters 1000 titles, Three complete sets of Grand Slam trophies, two complete sets of Masters 1000 trophies, Seven ATP Season-Ending Championships, Eight Year-End Number 1s, and an Olympic Gold medal in Singles.

At 428 weeks, he has the most weeks at world No.1 since the inception of computerised rankings. His nearest men’s competitor is Roger Federer on 310. That’s a difference of over two entire years.

He has 24 Grand Slam Singles titles, the all time men’s leader. His nearest competitor is Rafael Nadal on 22. He has 40 Masters 1000 titles, the all time leader, his nearest competitor being Rafael Nadal with 36. He has three complete sets of Grand Slam Singles titles, the all time men’s leader, his nearest competitors being Rafael Nadal, Rod Laver and Roy Emerson on two each.

He has two complete sets of Masters 1000 titles, the all time leader, with no other player having completed it once. He has seven ATP Year-End Championships, the all time leader, his nearest competitor being Roger Federer with six. He has Eight year-end World Number 1s, the all time leader, his nearest competitor being Pete Sampras, with six. He has one Olympic Gold, the all time leader is Andy Murray with two.

And perhaps, most impressively, the above accolades comprise the only ever career “Big Title Sweep” in tennis: all four Grand Slam Titles, all nine Masters 1000 titles, the Year-Ending Championship, and Olympic Gold.

Some might be surprised to learn that Pete Sampras never won Roland Garros, or that Roger Federer never won Rome. Rafael Nadal never won the Year End Championships, Andre Agassi never won Monte Carlo.

There is one player who has won every single one.

The Australian Open. Roland Garros. Wimbledon. The US Open. Indian Wells. Miami. Monte Carlo. Madrid. Rome. Cincinnati. Toronto/Montreal. Paris. Shanghai. The ATP Finals. Olympic Gold.

The one described by WTA star (and partner of our own Alex De Minaur) Katie Boulter as the man who “completed tennis”: Novak Djokovic.

Some might say it’s a close race. It isn’t. When it comes to the stats, it’s an ace for Novak.

Novak Djokovic shows his frustration with a member of the crowd during third-round win at the Australian Open. (Photo by Jason Heidrich/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The competition

This is one of the most pertinent variables in the debate. It’s one thing to run up stats, but how tough were/are their respective eras? Any debate about the greatest basketballer of all time will essentially be a two horse race between Jordan and James. There is generally a much bigger pool for third, but the top two spots are almost exclusively occupied by Air Jordan and The King.

Likewise, most lists of the greatest men’s tennis players of all time would contain some combination of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal – the exalted triumvirate known as the Big 3 – occupying the top three spots. Although ESPN’s recent list was exclusively for athletes in the 21st century, they also had all three of them as the top three men’s tennis players on the list.

Regardless of the order in which you have these names, they are the most prolific grand slam singles winners in men’s tennis history, and have all inexplicably played in the same era. It is an astonishing turn of events, and one rarely seen in the world of sports.

The same is not true for the top three winners of singles Grand Slams in the women’s game: Margaret Court, Serena Williams and Steffi Graf all dominated different eras. And it’s certainly not true for LeBron and Jordan.

Given this fact alone, it’s absolutely fair to say that Djokovic competed in the toughest era of men’s tennis. And contrary to what some may believe, Federer v Nadal was not the prevalent rivalry of the Big 3.

Roger and Rafa met 40 times, with Rafa winning the rivalry 24-16.

Novak and Roger met 50 times, with Novak winning the rivalry 27-23.

Novak and Rafa met 60 times, with Novak winning the rivalry 31-29.

So not only did Novak compete in the toughest era, he was the most frequent opponent for both Roger and Rafa – his direct competition for the title of GOAT – and he came away with all the stats, all the records, all the spoils… and a winning head-to-head record against both.

In contrast, LeBron never played directly against Jordan, so the comparisons between them will only ever amount to speculation.

Still, King James has played in perhaps two extremely strong eras himself. He faced off with numerous great players, including multiple finals series against the likes of Tim Duncan, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.

And while he came away with a losing finals record against all three of them, I’d be doing a disservice to the King by not mentioning the fact that two of them joined forces mere months after LeBron’s greatest triumph, the 2016 NBA Championship.

In fact, before Durant joined Curry in Oakland, LeBron’s finals record against them was 1-0 and 1-1 respectively. The consequences of their union can not possibly be understated, particularly on LeBron’s legacy.

But even with that in mind, it pales in comparison to Novak playing over 100 matches against his direct competition for the title of GOAT, winning both rivalries, winning more majors than both and dominating the rankings for longer.

Is it a closer race than the statistical battle? Yes. But in the battle of eras, it’s still a clean winner for Novak.

Popularity

Should popularity count for anything in a debate about sporting GOATs? It certainly helps. In fact, it’s probably the only reason there’s a debate between these two at all.

James has faced his share of scrutiny from certain talking heads in the mainstream media. After taking his talents to South Beach in 2010, he became the most reviled player in NBA history.

But he completely redeemed his image when – after four straight finals series and two championships with the Miami Heat – he moved back to Cleveland, winning the 2016 NBA Championship. It was one hell of a redemption arc. It appeased a lot of people.

Yes, he had joined Kyrie Irving and recruited another All Star in Kevin Love. But this time, instead of being maligned for forming a “superteam”, LeBron and co. were allowed to play the role of underdog to the reigning NBA champions the Golden State Warriors.

The immensity of the 2016 Warriors squad can’t be understated. Fresh off winning the 2015 Championship, they broke the 1996 Chicago Bulls’ regular season record with a mind-bending 73 wins against only nine losses, and Curry had just become the first player to ever win the League MVP award unanimously. On paper they were the greatest team ever with the greatest MVP ever.

In the finals, the Warriors took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, which had proven to be an insurmountable lead throughout the entirety of NBA history. And at the time, Cleveland hadn’t won any sporting championship in over 50 years. The chips – all of them – were stacked against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

What LeBron accomplished in the final three games of that series was the stuff of sports folklore. It is the rare stuff that legends are made of. He led the Cavaliers to the championship while recording more points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks in the entire series than any player on either team.

More importantly, he broke the Cleveland curse, and after 52 long years, the hard-luck city of American sports knew Championship glory again.

Now compare that to the story of Djokovic. The Slavic anti-hero who broke the beloved men’s tennis duopoly of Federer and Nadal.

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There was a time when people didn’t mind Novak so much. That period in the late 2000s in which the battle for tennis supremacy was primarily fought between Roger and Rafa, with the odd contribution form a supporting character. Many romanticise this period as some kind of golden era – a simpler time.

Then, Novak crashed the party, unceremoniously and uninvited. From 2011, he started winning. A lot. When it became clear (sometime around 2015) that he would inevitably overtake both Federer and Rafa, the criteria suddenly changed. People wanted to talk about everything except stats.

That was when the goalposts shifted. Greatness was no longer determined by achievements, but by a laundry list of other factors that seem to change as frequently as the weather. How graceful is his game? Does he break racquets? Has he transcended the sport? Does the crowd chant his name? Does he present a garland of roses to every vanquished opponent? Can he make duck flambé?

There will never be a redemption arc for Novak. He obviously has millions of fans, but he simply pissed too many people in subjugating Roger and Rafa. And as he approaches the end of his stellar career, these same masses rally behind every young challenger who might dethrone the old warrior.

Regarding the criticisms of his playing style, nobody would argue that Novak plays a beautiful brand of tennis; that accolade belongs to Federer in a way that nobody else can ever share.

If Federer represents the art of tennis, Djokovic represents the science of tennis. It’s beauty versus efficiency. We can make the decision to assign greatness to both of those things. We could truthfully call them both geniuses. But many simply choose not to.

There are those who will assert that Novak’s reputation is a product of his stance on vaccination, his angry outbursts and his propensity to goad the crowd. Others may cite his proclivities for alternative medicine and cosmic guru health therapies.

But this is refuted by the media itself. At Wimbledon 2021 – well before the Australian Border fiasco – Novak was asked point blank what it’s been like to be the “bad guy, chasing down Roger and Rafa for all these years”.

The moment Novak took the lead in the Grand Slam title race, The Guardian posted an article titled “Novak Djokovic’s 23rd grand slam is a record – but please don’t call him the GOAT”. The UK Telegraph posted one titled “Tennis has a Novak Djokovic problem and a solution needs to present itself … fast”.

Whether or not you think it ought to be addressed, it’s as lopsided for LeBron as the statistical battle is for Novak. In the battle of popularity, LeBron puts Novak on a poster.

(Photo by Getty Images)

Their colleagues

What do the current and retired players think?

The good people at HoopsHype compiled a list in 2023 of those who have gone on record referring to LeBron James as the GOAT. They did so weeks after he broke the NBA scoring record, and given that he hasn’t added any Championships or League MVPs to his resume since, it’s probably fair to consider it current.

Included on this list are Isaiah Thomas (no surprises there), Jason Kidd, Anthony Davis, Allen Iverson, Paul Pierce, Draymond Green, Ja Morant, Trae Young, Gilbert Arenas, Jaylen Brown, Kendrick Perkins, Justin Anderson, Bill Laimbeer (again, no surprise), Jason Williams and Channing Frye.

Around the same time, they released a list of players on record calling Jordan the GOAT. Among MJ’s backers were Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash, Dominique Wilkins, James Worthy, Damien Lillard, Carmelo Anthony, Ray Allen, Chris Webber, Vince Carter, Luca Doncic, Stephon Marbury, Shawn Kemp,

This isn’t an exercise to determine whose supporters are more impressive, it simply demonstrates that the jury is very much still out as to who is the GOAT.

In comparison, Novak’s stock seems substantially higher, particularly among retired legends.

He’s had the likes of John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Greg Rusedski, Rennae Stubbs, Andy Murray, Juan Martin Del Potro, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Darrehn Cahill, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Pat Rafter, Patrick Mouratogolou and Rohan Bopanna name him the GOAT.

Riley Opelka called Novak the GOAT at least three times after eliminating him from the Brisbane International with a brutal display of power tennis.

Perhaps one of the most telling quotes comes from former number 1 and 2003 US Open Champion Andy Roddick, shortly after Novak won his 24th major: “It’s not even close to hyperbolic to say Novak is the best athlete on earth right now”.

Considering their contentious history, these words hold considerable weight.

In fact, among these names are some analysts who have been openly critical of Novak in the past, which only drives the point home: it’s getting nearly impossible to deny.

You’ll find a few dissenting opinions, but they rarely offer a reason that doesn’t simply cite Federer’s greater popularity. And others want to settle for a lazy “all three are the GOAT” compromise. But vanishingly few – at least nowadays – will openly name any other player.

If this were an election, Novak wins a landslide.

Roger Federer (Photo by Luke Walker/Getty Images for Laver Cup)

There are more variables we could throw around, but generally, when it comes down to these obscure variables, they’re often used as a tiebreaker in a close comparison. This one is not close, and the variables arguably don’t help LeBron’s case anyway.

If you give any credence to sports awards shows, you could point out that Lebron has won the ESPY for Male Athlete of the Year three times. But you’d also be forced to acknowledge that Novak has won the Laureus Sportsman of the Year award five times.

If you’re a basketball fan who wants to debate who is greater between Jordan and Lebron, have at it. But between Novak and LeBron, there is absolutely no debate to be had, unless you hold popularity above all metrics of actual sporting achievement.

ESPN’s expert analysts were wrong.

LeBron James is certainly one of the greatest. His name will doubtlessly endure for generations to come as one of the greatest athletes ever to play professional sports.

But Novak Djokovic is categorically greater.