Do you know who the GOAT is?

ROWDS cheer and shriek as their favorite players are ready to compete. To some, the Greatest of All Time may be Michael Jordan or Lebron James in basketball or Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in soccer. Yet, people still bicker about who the best is, some for silly reasons, making it obvious that this immature debate will never end.

In professional basketball, there is a widespread debate on who should hold the honored title of the GOAT: retired Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan or current Los Angeles Laker Lebron James. These players played in different times, so the people who were able to experience Jordan’s crazy dunk in 1987 from the free throw line will probably argue that he is better. However, this is an assumption based mainly on nostalgia and the fact that they probably cannot work a modern television.

Not calling myself a LeBron fan, but those Jordan fans with a middle schooler’s sense of humor further their silly argument by calling James “LeMickey James” simply because they discount his championship win in 2020 in Orlando, Fla., home to Disney World. They argue that James can only win with a “superteam” or under fake circumstances.

This shows how obsessive fans of either player will find silly ways to try to prove why either Jordan or James should not be labeled the

GOAT of basketball, seemingly forgetting the fact that either player would destroy them in a one-on-one game.

“I don’t think the GOAT debate will ever be solved because there are so many players. For example Lebron James and Michael Jordan both played in different times so you can’t really compare the two,” freshman Veronica Trueba said.

After the recent World Cup, many have decided on their own terms that the debate over the greatest soccer player of all time is over. While Ronaldo was “crying in his car” after Portugal’s elimination from the World Cup, according to a Morocco fan, Argentina finally got the win that many think they deserved. On top of scoring his jaw dropping “encara Messi” goal back in 2007, Messi carried Argentina with seven goals in the tournament, seemingly leaving Ronaldo and his one World Cup goal in the dust.

However, it clearly is not fair to discount Ronaldo’s place in this debate largely based on his performance in a single tournament, especially considering his one of a kind bicycle goal for Real Madrid in 2018 in the Champions League. This proves how fans will take either player’s best moment and compare it to the other’s worst moment to win an argument that they just do not have the soccer experience to win.

All sports have their selection of possible GOATS and their fanatics will fight to the death just to defend their beloved athlete that is completely unaware of their existence. To paint a picture, in a soccer match in June 2019, a fan ran onto the field to have his back signed by his lord and savior Messi, just before being taken away by security and likely charged of a crime.

Another example of a not so successful run in with a devotee and their icon was in a NBA game in Nov. 2017, when a 10-year-old tried to get his jersey signed by Stephen Curry, who unfortunately ignored the fan and went about his business.

As many new sports stars start showcasing their abilities on the big stage, new debates about who the future GOAT might be form, proving that these pointless arguments will truly never end. So, instead of wasting time and energy having a debate with no future resolution, fans should find something a little more productive to do, like work on their own skills.

“Honestly, I think that this debate has gotten out of hand. People bash other players because they are not their favorite or they think that they are not the real GOAT,” junior shooting guard Savannah Villarreal said.