Was Jordan basically unanimously considered the best of all time before he won his first ring?

The GOAT discussion has never been unanimous, or even close to it.  Those who do consider him the greatest ever (and I'm one of those people) all have different points in his career when they said to themselves "Okay, there's never been anybody who plays better than this guy."

For me, that day was March 28, 1995.  Jordan had returned to the NBA just a few days earlier, after playing minor league baseball for two seasons.  The Bulls were in New York, playing the Knicks.  The Knicks and their fans hated the Bulls, and Jordan especially.  Furthermore, the Knicks were a defensive juggernaut that season, finishing first in the league in defensive rating.  They were looking to really lower the boom on Jordan.

MJ scored 55.  The Bulls won 113-111.

The more I ponder on this GOAT thing, the more I realized that most of my prior thinking and very well true for most of other ppl's thinking is dictated by marketing, specifically the Nike marketing machine.  Think for a while, almost every iconic athlete - Agassi, Tiger, Jordan, etc are Nike clients.  Genius marketing immortalizes ppl and even things into icons.  For example, if Rolex does not sponsor sports like golf, tennis, and F1 racing, would they have the status they have now?  If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one there, we can safely conclude it never fell down.

Back to basketball, LeBron clearly will have better stats if this makes a GOAT.  One could argue that's only because of his longevity but isn't that part of basketball?  Many potentially great players never reached their potential because of injuries.  Does number of championships make a GOAT?  Because this is problematic since Pipen and other Bulls players have same number of wins just by being in same team with Jordan.  To conclude, it is clear when the smoke clears, LeBron will have better stats and possibly a 5th title making him pretty close if not better than Jordan.  One thing Jordan never done is win in another team.  That to me is telling on how good one player is.  Brady clearly is GOAT by winning in another team.  In the end, I feel a lot of greatness ppl remembered of Jordan is pure Nike marketing.

The media and casual fans started the talk when he dropped 63 on Boston. To the hardcore basketball fan though it was when he improved his defense and started improving the guys around him. If you want a specific moment I'd say that ridiculous layup against the Lakers where he went up and then back around. He was clearly on another level at that point. 

Yes I do think so.

People considered Dr. J the GOAT before MJ arrived. I can only assume GOAT talk started when he won the ring during that 72-10 season.