Wrong, me being a Bron fan has no bearing I'm my opinion. Long as the world keeps spinning and the NBA is still a thing, there will come a point where Bron will start fading from regular consciousness as well...
This is the perfect example. Mike is the biggest individual in American entertainment history and quite possibly the history of entertainment on Earth. And by entertainment I mean music, arts, film, sports, everything...
June will mark 13 years since his passing, and even this guy, objectively, far and away a larger global icon than Michael Jordan---->even Mike's name and presence has faded some, and this is in only 13 years...
The answer is right under your nose: it's not the people of Bron's era that control the narrative shaping of GOAT basketball players yet...
Simple explanation...
Bron wasnt born until two days before 1985. He's a Millenial, a generation of people where the widely accepted start date of birth is 1980 or '81. My point? Millenials don't own these rags that talk about GOATs; Millenials aren't the biggest name sports journalists on TV at this point (think Skip, Stephen A, and the other big name journalists; the most popular one who happens to be a Millenial is Nick Wright but there aren't many his age with prominent voices on TV yet)...
Obviously, as time goes on, the Boomers and Gen Xers that hold these seats and positions of power will age out and give way to people of Bron's age---Millenials--and even younger, and publicly you'll start seeing the narrative change...
It's gonna happen, and alota you nikkas gonna act like you weren't told it would if you live long enough...
Amongst Millenials overall there is still a slight Mike consensus but thats because older Millenials were victim of Jordan Mystique as well as many older Millenials saw Mike play. Millenials born 1990 and later are much less inclined to have Mike as the GOAT and imstead theres a diverse, balanced charge of who the GOAT is.
Kareem was always near the convo but there's little sourcing that shows he ever had strong momentum for #1. 20 years after his retirement was '09 and no, people weren't really checking for Kareem hard in this convo back in 2009...
Top 5, Rushmore scale player, sure, he been in that regard forever. The renewed interest in Kareem as THE GOAT didn't get to where it is currently until Bron started threatening Mike's placement, then you got muhfukkas on some "what about Kareem" shyt...