You usually only hear a few names brought up whenever someone is asked to pick the GOAT basketball player. There’s Michael Jordan, there’s , every now and then you’ll hear someone cite Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career of excellence in the sport, or Bill Russell’s 11 championship rings in a 13-year playing career. In a recent clip while promoting his new movie , decided to go in a different direction.

The question got posed to himself and his co-star Martin Lawrence, and while Lawrence used a pretty common argument in picking Jordan (he was undefeated in the NBA Finals in his career), Smith leaned heavily on his Philadelphia roots in naming his GOAT — and no, he did not pick Sixers legend Allen Iverson or Philly native Kobe Bryant. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence name their 🐐 basketball players for — Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) “I mean, ok, so you got a Greatest of All-Time,” Smith said. “I think there has to be avenues.

Like, for me, the GOAT basketball player for my life — for my life — the GOAT basketball player is Julius Erving. Like, the basketball player that changed my life.” Erving spent 11 years as a member of the , and was an important piece of their NBA championship winning team in 1983.

Smith would have been a teenager in Philly at that point, so it probably isn’t a big surprise that he holds Dr. J in such high regard..