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"Basketball is a game you never master" - Isiah explains why no player could ever be the greatest
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- "Basketball is a game you never master" - Isiah explains why no player could ever be the greatest
Many of our favorite NBA stars are known for striving to be the greatest player in the world, and some, even of all time. While it's natural for these players to combine ambition and determination, Isiah Thomas argued that none of them could ever be the one true greatest among the rest.
According to the Hall of Fame point guard, no matter how good a player is, he could never be the best in the game because that's not how basketball works. Instead, Zeke stated that you only become better than other players. To achieve that, Thomas emphasized the need to constantly work.
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"I never stopped training. I was always in shape. I was always working on my skills. I was always working on my craft because basketball is a game you never master," Thomas said in a promo for Vita Coco. "You want to be excellent at it , but you never really could be excellent."
"However, if you can get to 90% and everybody else is just 50, you're gonna win," he pointed out.
Zeke didn't like LeBron proclaiming himself as the GOAT
Like most of his fellow legends, Thomas is also unsurprisingly big on hard work and dedication. At the same time, the former Detroit Pistons point guard also believes that all great players should have humility.
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That being said, it's no surprise that Zeke took issue with LeBron James proclaiming himself as the greatest player in the world when he led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a historic comeback after being down 1-3 in the 2016 Finals against the Golden State Warriors .
For Thomas, it was unbecoming for a player like James to make such public comments. As a great player himself, Isiah believed there was no excuse for what LeBron said at the time.
"Everybody knows I love LeBron," Thomas said in his reaction to James' declaration, "But I'm gonna call timeout on this one. I'll speak to LeBron, I'll say it to his face. You never — that's a certain thing about the greatness that demands you have humility with greatness. Even though we argue about Michael Jordan being the greatest of all time, or Kareem Abdul Jabbar being the greatest of all time, [or] LeBron James being the greatest of all time, we have those arguments and debate."
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"I have never heard Michael Jordan say he's the greatest of all time," he added. "All I know if I was in the league right now and you talking about you the greatest of all time, dude, I'm getting ready to do you. I'm coming at you...To say that is just totally disrespectful to me as one of your competitors."
Isiah played to win, but not to be the greatest
Certainly, many would disagree with Thomas's take. However, nobody could question his character as a player.
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During his playing years, Zeke did not play and compete to prove to everybody that he was the best. Instead, he just gave it all he had for his team to win. In all fairness to Thomas, we never heard him say he was the greatest back when the Bad Boys were dominating Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls .
Even though Isiah has been quizzed to pick his GOAT on more than one occasion, his point was that it's important for any GOAT candidate not to think of himself as the greatest.
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Related: Isiah Thomas said it was disappointing how the media portrayed the Pistons in the '80s
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Dec 6, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
