The NBA GOAT debate sometimes pits LeBron James against the late Kobe Bryant for second place. While one is celebrated for unmatched all-around brilliance and decision-making, the other is revered as one of the most lethal scorers the sport has ever seen. Now, Isiah Thomas weighed in on the conversation, offering a nuanced take that separates scoring from winning plays.

Thomas, on a Thursday episode of FanDuel’s “Run It Back” show, offered a more surgical take on the same question, saying that “I have to go with Kobe to get a bucket, but it ain’t that much,” Thomas added. “To score or win the game or make the right play, I’mma go with LeBron. If there’s one guy to make the bucket to score to win it, I’mma go with Kobe because to me he’s a better perimeter shooter and he can get to the basket, but LeBron, you’re not going to lose either one of them.”

Scoring a bucket and winning a game are not always the same decision. Thomas, a point guard whose entire career was built around making the winning play rather than the scoring play, understood the difference better than most. Furthermore, the numbers support his read.

In clutch situations, games within five points in the final five minutes, LeBron has shot 46.8% from the field across his career; Kobe, on the other hand, shot 44.7%, per Statmuse. The margins are narrow, but the edge goes to LeBron on efficiency. Meanwhile, Kobe logged 36 career game-winners, a record that cemented his reputation as someone who not only wanted the shot but converted it.

Two-time NBA All-Star Deron Williams set the conversation in motion on March 25, telling the ‘To The Baha’ podcast telling the ‘To The Baha’ podcast: “If I got to get the ball to somebody to get a bucket, I’m going Kobe.”

The three-time All-Star played alongside both players on the 2008 and 2012 Team USA gold medal squads, and his firsthand experience gave the take immediate traction.

But Thomas does not stop at the clutch argument. On the same Run It Back appearance, he goes further into the question of who actually sits at the top of basketball history.

Isiah Thomas Places LeBron James Above Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in GOAT Rankings

Thomas added his voice to the never-ending NBA GOAT debate. When the question came up, he responded saying, “To me, I’m going LeBron, MJ, Kobe,” he says plainly. “He’s breaking every single record that’s ever been set in the game of basketball. Rebounds, points, assists, games played, baskets made, he’s all over the board. There’s never been a player in the history of the game like LeBron James.”

On that point, the numbers do not argue back. LeBron James is the all-time leading scorer with 43,253 career points, and counting, and the only player in league history to accumulate more than 40,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, and 10,000 assists in his career.

Thomas is open about the fact that his history with Jordan, he was famously left off the 1992 Dream Team, reportedly at Jordan’s insistence, has coloured his perspective in the eyes of some observers. He pushed back on the idea that personal history drives his LeBron stance. “I’m just presenting the facts,” he says. And on a record-by-record basis, the facts align with his ranking.

To win a game, to top a GOAT list, to break a record, the answer is LeBron. Kobe gets the nod in one specific, narrow scenario: when the play is drawn up, the clock is winding down, and the only job is to put the ball in the basket.