A lot of folks from the younger generations believe that Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is the GOAT. You can’t really blame them, considering how these people grew up watching LeBron build his legacy to the heights it has reached today. To a certain extent, the same can be said about fans who grew up idolizing Michael Jordan.

For his part, though, Jerry West has had the opportunity to watch both LeBron and MJ. In fact, he’s also been around long enough to have witnessed a few other GOAT contenders that preceded these two icons of the game. As such, the Hall of Famer has become totally jaded by all this GOAT talk:

“Guys, this is the most ridiculous conversation you’ll ever have,” said the Lakers great on a recent appearance on Podcast P with Paul George presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment. “… There’s different eras, different changes. Athletes today, their athletic ability should be better. They should be better shooters.

“… But face it, they’re copycats. You put the other guy who got the same kind of s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁, he’ll look like he’s trying to mimic the great guy. I don’t buy into this goat stuff. My god. There’s a lot of smelly goats around, I know that.”

This is Jerry West talking so you have to respect the legend’s opinion here. Given his wealth of knowledge in all things NBA — plus he played the game for quite a while, too — West is no longer contributing to this whole GOAT talk on whether is LeBron James or Michael Jordan or somebody else. In fact, the Lakers icon is more than happy to stay out of the debate completely.