Stephon Marbury has some spicy takes on why the NBA GOAT debate between LeBron James and Michael Jordan is an unnecessary one.

Marbury, a 13-year NBA veteran and a two-time All-Star with the New Jersey Nets and Phoenix Suns, was recently interviewed by Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson on his podcast. During the conversation, the 43-year-old Marbury opened up why it's just wrong to compare LeBron to His Airness:

“People wanna rank Jordan? Jordan shouldn’t even be ranked. It should be Kobe, then LeBron and then you can pick guys after that. There’s just no comparison man. It’s not the same. It’s just different worlds. Different mentalities. I don’t know why Jordan’s name is mentioned in the same conversation sometimes. I’ll clear that up real quick…there’s really no need to talk about that,” the former NBA star exclaimed.

While this quote kind of makes it seem like Marbury ranks Kobe Bryant and LeBron ahead of MJ, the former star clarified his position and made it more clear that he thinks Jordan is in a class of his own:

“I mean, as the best player. Those guys, Kareem and Bill Russell – somebody had to give them the basketball to do what they do. Jordan got the ball and that was it. Those guys – Kareem, Bill Russell and Shaq… those are the type of guys that are different specimens on Earth that played the game. Jordan is not. Jordan is NOT from Earth. That’s different. He’s not the same. And I think it’ll really be insightful when they drop that Michael Jordan – when they drop that whole piece, I don’t know if they didn’t dropped it yet – that series…”

Marbury was referring to “The Last Dance” at the end of this quote, and he even thinks watching this will help show a younger generation of kids just how special Jordan was. While LeBron is obviously incredible and one of the best players ever, he just can't be compared to Mike:

“Yeah. The crazy part is that now everybody is home, so nobody can’t go anywhere. All the kids have to watch it and they’re gonna be like, ‘Daammmnnn! This is crazy!’ So it’s kind of like going to mess things up for guys like LeBron James and them saying like – You can’t say that LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan? C’mon man. LeBron’s a great player. Don’t get me wrong. A great, great player. Unbelievable. Amazing. But better than Michael Jordan? – it’s not even the same. It’s just different. In fact, it needs no explanation or explaining because we can’t talk about Jordan’s game. It’s like we need to talk about what people are ‘not.'”

No matter what anybody says, though, the GOAT debate will continue to rage on, especially if LeBron continues playing at a high level into his late 30s and potentially even when he's 40.

Of course, it's always going to be tough to reach Jordan's level given his stats and the fact that he went six-for-six in the NBA Finals. This documentary that's coming out should certainly help younger fans appreciate just how incredible he was as a player. It will show a different side of Jordan as well, one that not many people in general have seen.

Editor's Note: This story initially claimed Marbury was saying Kobe and LeBron were better than Jordan, but it has been updated with more Marbury quotes and other context to reflect that he was really trying to say that MJ is on his own level.