Devonte Graham jokes he no longer considers Michael Jordan the GOAT after the ex-Hornets owner offloaded him to New Orleans in 2021: 'Once I got traded, it became LeBron'

San Antonio Spurs star Devonte' Graham joked he no longer considers Michael Jordan the GOAT in basketball after the ex-Hornets owner traded him to New Orleans in 2021. 

Graham changed his allegiance to LeBron James after he became a Pelican, with the team that drafted him dealing him as part of a three-team trade with the Memphis Grizzlies. 

Graham's quote was to HoopsHype, with The Athletic asking current NBA stars who their GOAT is in recent days as well. 

Of the 142 players surveyed by the The Athletic, Jordan was still the leading GOAT with 45.9 percent of the vote. LeBron finished just behind at 42.1 percent, less than a four percent difference.

That's a stark difference from the same poll conducted last year, when Jordan won by 25.3 percent. In 2019, Jordan had a commanding 61.1 percentage-point lead.  

'I played for the GOAT, Michael Jordan. He paid me. When I played there, he was definitely the GOAT. Once I got traded, it became LeBron,' Graham told HoopsHype. 

The late Kobe Bryant finished third and was the only other player to have more than one percent of the vote, at 9.8 percent. Tied for fourth in the voting was Stephen Curry, Magic Johnson, and Paul Pierce, each with 0.8 percent of the vote, per The Athletic. 

HoopsHype's poll has Jordan was a bigger lead with 49 percent, compared to James' 37 percent. Bryant stays in third at nine percent. 

The race for fourth was much more competitive on HoopsHype, with five players tied for the spot. 

Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Larry Bird, Dwayne Wade and Bill Russell all received around one percent of the vote.