Michael Jordan explained why he was NBA’s best: ‘I do a lot more than they do’

November 15, 2026

Michael Jordan had a straightforward explanation for why he considered himself the best player in the NBA. Scoring was only part of his argument.

“When I’m at my best offensively, I know I can dictate what I want to do,” Jordan wrote in I’m Back: More Rare Air, as John Jefferson Tan of Basketball Network detailed.

Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls, NBA — Getty

“Defensively, I can dictate some things, but not nearly as much as I can offensively. That’s just the nature of the game. But I think I’m the best at this particular time because I play both ends of the court.”

The Bulls’ 1995-96 season supplied plenty of support. Jordan averaged 30.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists while Chicago won a then-record 72 regular-season games.

Everybody knew about the scoring. Jordan believed the rest of his work deserved consideration, too.

“The best ever? I can’t say that,” he wrote. “But I play both ends. And I do a lot of things that go unnoticed. How do I compare to others? I don’t know. I just think that I do a lot more than they do.”

That’s about as close to modest as you’re going to get from someone explaining why he’s better than everybody else. But Jordan did leave the all-time comparison open, a position he has continued to explain in later comments.

“The whole GOAT term is never going to be something that I ever will get high or low about,” Jordan said. “You know, it just doesn’t exist with me.”

He pointed to Oscar Robertson and Jerry West as players he would have loved to face, while acknowledging what he learned from them.

“And we paved the road to the Kobes and LeBron, right?” Jordan said. “To me, that’s the beauty of the game of basketball — that a player, after a previous player, has evolved the game further.”

Jordan was comfortable making his case against his contemporaries. Comparing himself with players he never faced was a discussion he approached with considerably more restraint.