Scottie Pippen’s simple yet inarguable response when asked if he’s above LeBron James all-time

When you ask a basketball fan who the greatest player of all-time is, they will usually go with one of two options: Michael Jordan or LeBron James.

Of course there are others in the mix, including the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, and Magic Johnson.

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But Jordan and James are usually the two players, fans and NBA media usually debate between.

Jordan won six championship rings with the Chicago Bulls, and was the face of their dynasty with the Robin to his Batman in Scottie Pippen.

James, on the other hand, has won four rings with three different teams – the Miami Heat, his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Los Angeles Lakers – but is chasing another before he calls time on what has been a stellar career.

He is hoping that the Philadelphia 76ers can give him his fifth, having signed a two-year, $8 million ‘bargain’ deal with the Eastern Conference outfit.

Should he go on to claim another NBA title there, then he may yet strengthen his grip on winning that particular debate.

After all, he already holds the honor of having played the most years in the league and scoring the most points of all-time, among many, many other records, that when his career is all said and done, may be too much to chase by anybody.

But when Jordan’s right-hand man was asked back in 2025 – in footage that has since resurfaced – about the GOAT debate, Pippen hinted that he doesn’t even rank the 41-year-old above himself.

“My success as a team is more successful than LeBron. I got six rings,” Pippen said on a PBD Podcast episode from 2025.

He was also asked by host Patrick Bet-David whether an NBA owner who was looking to find an all-around player to be his number one would prefer to build around James or Pippen.

“Do you want individual accolades or do you want championships? Because I didn’t chase mine,” Pippen stated in response.

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James isn’t ring chasing now

If James was ring-chasing in the past – an argument could be made that he did so when he formed the ‘Big Three’ in Miami with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade – he certainly isn’t now.

Although he has now teamed up with Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown, who was traded in the offseason, on the Sixers, the franchise is in a serious drought having not won an NBA championship since 1983.

In fact, you’d have to cast your mind back to 2001 to the last time in which the Sixers were even in the NBA Finals, losing to the Lakers dynasty spearheaded by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

There are still questions over the 76ers roster formation too, and how all the egos will gel together under head coach Nick Nurse in pursuit of one common goal – bringing a championship to the City of Brotherly Love.

But under no circumstances could an argument be made that James is ring-chasing this late in his career.

If you look further back into his 24-year career in the NBA, aside from when he moved to South Beach, at no other point does the 21-time All-Star appear to be justifying Pippen’s claim.

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He returned to his childhood team Cavaliers – the team who drafted him No. 1 overall in 2003 – and delivered the franchise their first ever championship before moving to Hollywood to join the Lakers who had been stuck in mediocrity following Bryant’s retirement in 2016.

Having added Anthony Davis to the squad a year after he got there, only then did LA break their own drought.

In other words, James has walked into organizations twice in his career in which the roster was not a winning one until he arrived.

Now he’s hoping that he can win one in Philadelphia before calling time on one of — if not the — greatest NBA career of all-time.