What is the minimum number of seasons a player has to play to be the Goat in your eyes

[SNPA]

Pinnacle could be one season
Peak would require 5-7
Prime 8-10

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

If Derrick Rose gave me 4 GOAT seasons before catastrophic injury I would call him the GOAT
Rookies don’t have GOAT seasons so 6 seasons may be needed to be the GOAT.

I have Bernard King way higher in my GOAT list than others do because his 12 playoff game peak in 1984 was so high.
Bernard damn near beat my championship 1984 Celtics by himself.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Pinnacle could be one season
Peak would require 5-7
Prime 8-10

Pinnacle, first time I heard a name for something shorter than peak. Can I take the last 41 games of 1983-84 and 12 1984 playoff games plus the first 41 games of 1984-85 and call that Bernard King’s pinnacle? If I can do that then I think Bernard King has a top 10 pinnacle.

[frica]

If truly superhuman, just one could suffice.

Otherwise at least 10.

[FJS]

NBA is changing so careers are doing it too.
In the 50's, 60's, 70's players began to play with 22 so any career above 13 or 14 years was something remarkable.
Bird played only 13 years but he was 35, so you can't ask him much more. Same with Russell or chamberlain.
Johnson began with 20, and he could have played more than the 13 he played, but he had HIV.

Then you had those kids with 18 T-Mac, Kobe, KG... but the thing is they weren't as good until they reached 20-21.

I mean, in league history there's a lot of rookies with real impact playing with 22 years, and other with better longevity playing mediocre years at the beginning, end or beginning and end of their careers.. is this more valuable?

Then you have people like Kareem having a instant impact and then being great until he was really old.

So you don't need to play 20 years to be great, but you have to have at least 10 years of high quality and then some kind of decline.

If a guy play from 20 years to 30, and the quit, I think It won't qualify. The goat of any sport must to love his game, so he must to play until he cannot play more, or not in the highest level.

[ThaRegul8r]

Enough for me to form a strong emotional connection to the player.

[falcolombardi]

This reminds me of doctor mj "how many karl malone seasons for him to be the goat" exercise but in reverse

If there was a player so good that he all but guaranteed a championship being added to any 30-35 wins roster (which any team, even the worst ones can build in a offseason by trading some assets)

How many years of near guaranteed rings do you need to rank him as the goat?,

3?, 4?

[migya]

Do you really think the Bulls, who did a lousy job for decades became masterminds all of a sudden?

Pretty much.

The Bulls had a .521 winning percentage (including the playoffs) 1985-1990 and Jordan had a losing record in the playoffs, overall.

1991-1998 they had an aggregate .746 winning percentage and Jordan had a 25-1 series record in the playoffs.

Jordan was statistically better 1985-1990 than he was 1991-1998.

So what changed? His teammates, coach, and that makes ALL the difference.

Nobody wins championships alone.

Not Wilt, not Jokic, not Kareem (1975-1979, when he was by FAR the best player in the NBA), not Jordan (before they built a Dynasty around him).

This is correct and logical. There were alot of players in history that could've had better careers but were on bad teams and it didn't allow them to flourish or develop that part needed that would've made them that but better.

[Cavsfansince84]

So you don't need to play 20 years to be great, but you have to have at least 10 years of high quality and then some kind of decline.

If a guy play from 20 years to 30, and the quit, I think It won't qualify. The goat of any sport must to love his game, so he must to play until he cannot play more, or not in the highest level.

I can respect that that's your view but I think that's pretty subjective. Jim Brown for instance retired at 30 due to a contract dispute and being ready to move on and he was commonly thought of as the nfl goat or close to it for a long time. I generally agree on the 10 year minimum(more so given that most guys take 2-3 years to really get going). I think the bolded though would disqualify MJ as a goat candidate since he stepped away in his prime and retired again as an mvp/fmvp.

[FJS]

So you don't need to play 20 years to be great, but you have to have at least 10 years of high quality and then some kind of decline.

If a guy play from 20 years to 30, and the quit, I think It won't qualify. The goat of any sport must to love his game, so he must to play until he cannot play more, or not in the highest level.

I can respect that that's your view but I think that's pretty subjective. Jim Brown for instance retired at 30 due to a contract dispute and being ready to move on and he was commonly thought of as the nfl goat or close to it for a long time. I generally agree on the 10 year minimum(more so given that most guys take 2-3 years to really get going). I think the bolded though would disqualify MJ as a goat candidate since he stepped away in his prime and retired again as an mvp/fmvp.

Not at all, because he came back, and still came back another time with 38 knowing he was not the same player anymore, but still loving this game.

[NbaAllDay]

So you don't need to play 20 years to be great, but you have to have at least 10 years of high quality and then some kind of decline.

If a guy play from 20 years to 30, and the quit, I think It won't qualify. The goat of any sport must to love his game, so he must to play until he cannot play more, or not in the highest level.

I can respect that that's your view but I think that's pretty subjective. Jim Brown for instance retired at 30 due to a contract dispute and being ready to move on and he was commonly thought of as the nfl goat or close to it for a long time. I generally agree on the 10 year minimum(more so given that most guys take 2-3 years to really get going). I think the bolded though would disqualify MJ as a goat candidate since he stepped away in his prime and retired again as an mvp/fmvp.

Not at all, because he came back, and still came back another time with 38 knowing he was not the same player anymore, but still loving this game.

Or ya know $$

[Cavsfansince84]

Not at all, because he came back, and still came back another time with 38 knowing he was not the same player anymore, but still loving this game.

MJ quit at 30 though just like you said above and sort of only came back because people close to him were sort of pressuring him into it. I mean it's your criteria so it can be w/e you want it to be but MJ seemed more than ready to call it a career at 30 and said he had seriously considered stopping after 2 rings also.

[FJS]

Not at all, because he came back, and still came back another time with 38 knowing he was not the same player anymore, but still loving this game.

MJ quit at 30 though just like you said above and sort of only came back because people close to him were sort of pressuring him into it. I mean it's your criteria so it can be w/e you want it to be but MJ seemed more than ready to call it a career at 30 and said he had seriously considered stopping after 2 rings also.

Ok, still I don't think anybody could call Jordan the GOAT if he retired at 30 and he doesn't return.

[No-more-rings]

Jordan did it with basically 11 full seasons of relevance. I guess you can say 13 if counting the Wizards, but there’s no way those 2 seasons are the reason he’s above anyone else. If someone surpasses Jordan’s level of dominance, I can’t rule out like 9 or 10 seasons being plausible.