The Eternal GOAT Debate: Michael Phelps Weighs In
In the ongoing conversation about basketball’s greatest player, legendary Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has made his position crystal clear: Michael Jordan reigns supreme. At the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year ceremony, when asked to choose between Jordan and LeBron James, Phelps didn’t hesitate before declaring, “[No.] 23, the original, the original GOAT.” This declaration adds another prominent voice to the decades-long debate that continues to captivate sports fans worldwide as the 2025-26 NBA season unfolds. For Phelps, Jordan transcends basketball; he represents an ideal of athletic excellence and mental fortitude that crossed sport boundaries and inspired generations of athletes across disciplines.
Phelps elaborated on Jordan’s profound influence, explaining how he modeled his own swimming career after the six-time NBA champion’s approach to basketball. “For me, Michael Jordan was always the one I looked up to and wanted to do what he did in basketball in the sport of swimming,” Phelps shared, highlighting the universal appeal of Jordan’s competitive philosophy. The admiration runs deeper than mere athletic achievement—Phelps was drawn to Jordan’s psychological approach to competition and his ability to perform under pressure. In a revealing series of comparisons, the swimmer consistently chose Jordan over other sporting legends including Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Diana Taurasi, and even Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion whose career longevity and championship pedigree mirror Jordan’s own dominance.
What makes Phelps’ perspective particularly noteworthy is his own standing in sports history. As the most decorated Olympian of all time with an unprecedented 28 medals, Phelps himself knows something about athletic greatness. Yet when his own name entered the conversation, he humbly acknowledged that even his remarkable achievements couldn’t match Jordan’s impact. “For me, he was my childhood idol. Again, watching him on and off the court, what he did, how he handled himself,” Phelps reflected. This sentiment underscores the intangible qualities that elevate Jordan in the eyes of many—not just statistical dominance, but a distinctive competitive spirit and psychological resilience that defined an era of basketball excellence.
The specific qualities that Phelps admired in Jordan reveal much about how elite athletes view greatness. “No matter what he went through, when he was on the court, everything was left behind, and he was able to be who he was trying to be… the best version of himself. There were no excuses,” Phelps observed. This capacity to compartmentalize external pressures and perform at the highest level resonated deeply with the swimmer, who faced his own extraordinary expectations throughout his career. Phelps’ confession that he “modeled my career” after Jordan’s example demonstrates how athletic greatness can transcend individual sports, creating templates for excellence that influence competitors across different disciplines.
The timing of Phelps’ comments coincides with the NBA’s ongoing celebration of its historical greats. In 1996, the league commemorated its first half-century by naming the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history, and twenty-five years later expanded this recognition with the 75th Anniversary Team. Interestingly, the NBA deliberately avoided ranking these legends, perhaps acknowledging the impossibility of definitively settling debates like the one between Jordan and James. This approach recognizes that greatness exists across different eras, playing styles, and contexts—each generation defining its own standard-bearers while building upon the foundations laid by previous stars.
While Phelps’ opinion carries the weight of his own extraordinary achievements, the Jordan-LeBron debate ultimately represents something larger than individual preference. It embodies our collective fascination with human excellence and the perpetual question of how to measure greatness across different eras. As the 2025-26 NBA season continues, new chapters are being written in basketball’s evolving story, perhaps featuring players who will one day enter this rarefied conversation. Yet Jordan’s influence remains so profound that even athletes at the pinnacle of entirely different sports still invoke his name as the benchmark for competitive greatness—a testament to how thoroughly he transformed not just basketball, but our very conception of what an athlete can achieve and inspire across generations.
