SALT LAKE CITY, UNITED STATES: Michael Jordan (L) of the Chicago Bulls goes to the basket past... [+] Shandon Anderson of the Utah Jazz 14 June during game six of the NBA Finals at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, UT. AFP PHOTO/Mike NELSON

The Greatest Of All Time—or more simply, The GOAT.

It is the title bestowed upon one person that is perceived as superior to all the rest. It is the person believed to be the best basketball player of all-time. It belongs to the one who not only battles against the competition, but also against time, history and health, and comes out victorious.

There are many legends, but there is only one GOAT.

But who is it? What criteria determines the GOAT?

Is it stats? Is it rings? Is it longevity? A mixture of the three? Something else?

This is an age-old debate.

You hear it when you go to the barbershop to get a shape-up. You hear it in between pickup games at the local rec center. You hear it at the lunch table in school. You flip on the TV, or play that video you scrolled onto in your newsfeed, and watch two analysts hollering back-and-forth in disgust that the other believes that ‘that guy’ is the GOAT. You even hear it at the park where the old-timer in the neighborhood is telling you about so-and-so, who back in the day could jump up and put a quarter on the top of the backboard, and could have beaten Michael Jordan one-on-one had he just made it.

You probably even made a case for the player that you believe is deserving of the title.

The debate has been going on for decades and has no signs of slowing up. The more time that passes, the more it intensifies.

Throughout the history of the GOAT debate, the people have been left without a definitive answer. However, one guy believes to have solved the timeless debate once and for all.

Ben Hinson is the founder of Hickam’s Dictum, a business intelligence blog where he shares tactical insights across various industries. On Hickam’s Dictum, Hinson published an article titled ‘The G.O.A.T: Who is the Best Basketball Player of all Time (mid 70s — early 00s)?’ In the article, he ranks the NBA’s greatest players of all time from a playoff performance perspective using a holistic weighted ranking system.To ensure accuracy of statistics, Hinson pulled data from basketball-reference.com and audited the numbers by matching them against data from ESPN. He then enlisted the help of his colleague to review his work.