{"id":508091,"date":"2026-07-31T14:03:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=508091"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:03:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:03:38","slug":"stephen-a-smith-repeats-his-lebron-james-goat-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/stephen-a-smith-repeats-his-lebron-james-goat-stance\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith repeats his LeBron James GOAT stance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen A. Smith once again addressed the NBA greatest-of-all-time debate, making it clear that he still puts Michael Jordan ahead of LeBron James.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLadies and gentlemen, I believe Michael Jordan is the greatest that has ever lived,\u201d Smith said, explaining that Jordan\u2019s ability to deliver in the biggest moments is the key factor in his view. He called MJ \u201cthe greatest closer in the history of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That led to Smith\u2019s firm conclusion on LeBron James: \u201cThat\u2019s why I believe LeBron James will never be the GOAT.\u201d It is a stance Smith has expressed before and repeated again in the ongoing debate between the two NBA legends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ESPN personality says Michael Jordan remains ahead because of his ability to close in the biggest moments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":456278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-508091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stephen A. Smith repeats his LeBron James GOAT stance - Sportando<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/stephen-a-smith-repeats-his-lebron-james-goat-stance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stephen A. Smith repeats his LeBron James GOAT stance - Sportando\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ESPN personality says Michael Jordan remains ahead because of his ability to close in the biggest moments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/stephen-a-smith-repeats-his-lebron-james-goat-stance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sportando\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-31T12:03:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/08\/Gy-PAYboAALlvY.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alessandro Maggi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alessandro Maggi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportando.basketball\\\/en\\\/stephen-a-smith-repeats-his-lebron-james-goat-stance\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportando.basketball\\\/en\\\/stephen-a-smith-repeats-his-lebron-james-goat-stance\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alessandro Maggi\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sportando.basketball\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98de9c06eb3fd90db33619209ce5bc56\"},\"headline\":\"Stephen A. 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