This is definitely a generational thing, where everyone wants awards and recognition
for doing what they are supposed to do. We see every minute on social media, where
people want likes and follows for simply making dinner, cleaning up the house, going
to the gym. People even create fake accounts to like and follow their own posts, a
strategy to get others to give them recognition and attention.

It’s the “I need to GOAT myself syndrome”, and It doesn’t stop with the everyday
John and Jane. Athletes, who are already perceived as gods and goddesses,
are vehemently GOATing themselves even before they play one single professional
game.

The idea of being GOAT is not anything new. There were a few athletes in the past
who labeled themselves as GOAT. I think most would agree that an athlete
self-praising himself started with a young, up and coming boxer named Cassius
Clay. We now know him as Muhammad Ali. After beating Sonny Liston,
Ali screamed about how great he was. His personality and claims were rebuked
and frowned upon, and he was perceived as braggadocios. But there were no other
fighters making those types of claims of themselves. So Ali was a one-off and simply perceived as a showmen in regards to his GOAT claims.

Rickey Henderson was another athlete who constantly congratulated himself,
even self-titling himself the GOAT baseball player. However, just like Ali, it wasn’t
taken seriously. It was perceived as entertainment, and something to joke about
around the water cooler. There was no other baseball player clamoring about
being the GOAT.

A player’s legacy was/is determined once he leaves the game and his number
is retired and hanging in the rafters. A player gets inducted into the hall of fame,
and he is championed by his peers, fans and critics.

So when a player like Draymond Green says he is the greatest defensive player
of all time, or when Russell Westbrook says he is the greatest PG in the game,
not only is the claim wrong, but it is a disrespect to the game and the players who
are and were better than them.

Only a plant can give itself flowers.