We Are Constantly Making Progress But Are We Getting Better

 

One of the raging debates in sports right now is "MJ or LeBron," which is to say is Michael Jordan or LeBron James the greatest of all time. Babe Ruth, who last played 88 years ago, is commonly thought of as the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) in baseball. And of course, Muhammad Ali is the origin of the term "GOAT"; his last time in the boxing ring was in 1981 which is over 40 years ago.

These discussions are fun, even if they can get heated as people state their case for one athlete over another. The "MJ or LeBron" debate invariably hinges on things like how important championships are or who had better teammates. What I find interesting is that there is usually a generational dynamic to the discussion, with the MJ camp often saying LeBron wouldn't survive in the rougher era of the 80's and 90's and the LeBron camp countering that the competition is so much stiffer nowadays than a generation ago.

There is a very real sense in which athletes are objectively bigger, faster, and stronger than before, which probably means that they're better too. Today's athletes are also privy to huge advancements in medicine, training, and nutrition. Given that, is it possible for the GOAT to be someone who played 20, 40, or 80 years ago? Seems unlikely. But also seems unsatisfying that the GOAT in a sport is necessarily someone playing in the present day.

It makes me think we need to reframe the question. Is it "who was the most dominant relative to their era?" Or maybe "put '86 MJ and '18 LeBron on a court, who wins?" Perhaps the best one would be "magically put peak LeBron back in the '80s, would he dominate" or "magically put peak MJ into the league now, would he dominate." That's probably the best way to frame the debate, but also the hardest to answer. Would MJ's legendary killer instinct still trump everything if he was no longer the most physically gifted athlete on the court? Could LeBron's mind and might overcome the chippier style of play that was allowed back then? No one can really say.

Folks can continue that debate or any other sports GOAT debate they want, as it's fun to. The point I want to pivot to is that in society we are in a similar place. We benefit from human advancement and are more aware of social issues so are necessarily ahead of those who came before us, and in some cases extremely far ahead. Whether that means we are better than previous generations is not certain, though. As we'd want to grade LeBron or Shohei or anyone else based on the advancements available to them, so we ought to acknowledge that we are the beneficiaries of the intellectual and social progress that has brought us to the present day. What we do with it, and how those in generations to come will evaluate how we did, is what will determine if we are in fact better. It's something to aspire to, to commit to, to be inspired to achieve. I know it's something I think about and want to do.