Chicago Bulls: Dennis Rodman weighs in on the Jordan/GOAT debate

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid recently said he didn’t consider Michael Jordan the greatest NBA player of all time. Chicago Bulls legend Dennis Rodman had some harsh words for him.

This has been another disappointing season for the Chicago Bulls, as they see themselves among the worst teams in the NBA. They’re once again trying to tank for a high draft pick, but now they’re starting to win games at exactly the wrong time.

After acquiring forward Otto Porter Jr. at the NBA trade deadline, the Bulls have been playing better. They recently won three games in a row before falling to the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday.

The front office talked about this team competing for a playoff spot before the season started, but it’s clear that won’t be a goal for them now. Bulls fans have to cling to whatever notoriety their favorite team can get, even if it’s highly embarrassing.

Enter Dennis Rodman: Bulls Hall of Famer and noted ally of North Korea. Rodman hasn’t made news for non-ridiculous reasons in a long time. Monday was no exception as Rodman jumped in on the “Is Michael Jordan the G.O.A.T.?” debate. He didn’t mince words.

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid recently did an interview with The Ringer and was asked who he thought was the greatest NBA player of all time. He was pretty clear about his answer:

"He [Jordan] is not the G.O.A.T. To me, you got Wilt Chamberlain. He’s got all the records, and no one is ever gonna beat them. I don’t see anyone ever getting 100 points in a game. That’s it, he’s the G.O.A.T."

While it’s admirable that Embiid has a clear opinion on the subject, I’m not sure there’s a strong argument to be made that Chamberlain is definitively better than Jordan. However, I’m biased and the whole point of this debate is to have arguments.

This is a subject for another article, but I think the whole G.O.A.T. debate thing is overblown. It’s okay with me to name the best players of each era and hold them at equal or almost equal stature.

In that case, you can have Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Jordan, and LeBron James as the greatest players of their era and give them all the credit they deserve separately.

This is no fun for most people, especially Bulls fans. For a long time, I was one of those fans that would argue vehemently that Jordan was far better than any other NBA player in history. Now, it’s an argument I don’t care about nearly as much.

Apparently, Rodman still has strong feelings on the subject. Here was his response to Embiid’s comments, via a TMZ video:

"Joel Embiid, you’re doing a great job for your little island or country where you’re from. Shut the **** up, go do your ******* job and do Philly proud. That’s the one thing they need, is a championship."

Okay, then. Rodman was in rare form when TMZ “caught up” with him at Los Angeles International Airport. He’s unfortunately had some erratic incidents in the past few years, but he seemed to be on a more positive path recently. He was even Rickrolling people on Instagram.

Rodman seemed legitimately annoyed about Embiid’s assertion. It’s really not that big of a deal. I know Rodman will always defend his teammates, but at this point, I feel like it’s kind of a lost cost to try and convince young players that the olds know better than them.

I desperately wish that the Bulls were relevant enough that stories like this wouldn’t top the team’s headlines. Again, here we are. I long for the NBA draft when the Bulls must have a top-two pick if they want to compete at all in the near future.

I won’t be getting my hopes up on that one…