Remember when Stephen A went off on the Morey tweet saying Morey was on the wrong ? michael Jordan was China money back in the day The narrative that ESPN will always push is based on money and advertising this is about the shoes Money it’s about the shoes
I think the reason Jordan is, among the media, undeniably the best is because of how marketable he was. He became one of the most marketable players ever in all of sports and the power behind that has just fed the narratives about him. No one here is arguing that he's not one of the greatest of all times. What I am arguing though is that he would have beaten Kareem's Lakers in their prime or Bird's Celtics in their primes. That he would have beaten Hakeem's Rockets. He should not get victories he didn't earn. I also think the false narratives are so strong that you even get push back for daring to say someone else is the GOAT. Like Kareem. Kareem won as many championships, MVPs, no one has ever scored more points, the list of achievements for him about as good as anyone else but if you listen to NBA media they act like it isn't even close. They even voted Jordan the best college athlete...for what? Winning one title? There is a historical bias for Jordan that no one else gets.
I was thinking the same thing. It's the only thing Jordan has behind him that the other greats do not. Jordan made a lot of money for himself and for ESPN and sports media. The hype that surrounded him then still exist. ESPN just ignores facts about him. Not only do their anchors continue the lie that the Rockets only won because he didn't play TWO seasons...but they do things like this... Which just show how bias they are towards him.
They are selling an image of greatness and losing and cheating on your wife on the regular is not part of it Nike shoes Gatorade McDonald’s And space jam the rockets never got lots of tv Only when we got Barkley were we shown on tv Often the championship teams never got shown during the regular season
It is one thing to say the Rox beat him as he was human. Another thing to deny he was arguably the best ever with the best accomplishment in modern history or near modern history. That are two different things entirely. Yeah, totally agreed that he was marketed well. But Lebron was marketed even better and he couldn't crack MJ's networth even though there is a Supermax these days and commercials pay much more today. MJ won on many levels. Funny fact that Rodman with his insanity was more famous on the Bulls from 1996-1998. He dated the hottest women and partied and rebounded like crazy.
Sure thing, being the best doesn't mean he can't be beat. Everyone could be had in the right matchup and the right setting, it is still a team game. The thing about him that Hakeem cannot ever be is that he was a guard and the NBA trended toward a more guard heavy league. With big men applying guard skills. He is essentially a Hakeem version on Offense more than Defense and in guard form who could shoot well enough. The publicity and marketing aspect was addressed in the comment above. It is not like he didn't deliver. And 'The Last Dance' more than cemented his legacy. I would like to watch the same thing with Hakeem.
Imagine if Len Bias never passed.... Cleveland ruined the NBA for a decade by its horrible trades plus being the welcome mat for the Bulls in the playoffs.
I think those Bulls teams from that era would have won today... ironically, if they got rid of the Triangle (my final undergraduate paper at Rice was about the Triangle...). The Bulls had the 3 point shooting fire power even before those skills were emphasized with Kerr, Hodges, Paxson, and Armstrong. Jordan developed his jump shot after unfavorable comparisons to Drexler (he never topped 30 percent until after Year 5). First championship... just around 5.2 3PT attempts per game... but team 3PT% was 36.7% with most of the shooting done by the pure shooters.
Jordan also struggled to get out of the first round like McGrady did early on... Some guy picked ahead of him made it to the finals in year 2.
what amazes me is that, a majority of Clutchfans here clamor for Rockets media love from ESPN @Os Trigonum when THEY NEVER WILL give it them. It's like the stalkers trying to profess their love to Kendall Jenner Idiots, when she's banging her 10 NBA Starter in the league, you should figure it out that she's not interested
Ok, yeah. Jordan was a great NBA player, no question. Maybe the greatest, hard to say. But greatest college player ever? That’s ridiculous.
Kareem should be in the running but we will never see a big dude crowned Goat unless he can dribble around the perimeter and make fade away, step back 3s. That's probably the reality.
McGrady's problem was he couldn't get the rebound, make the defensive play in the clutch, went inefficient. Major reason he couldn't close out any series, because he went soft mentally and physically when it mattered (Gm 5 to Gm 7). He had probably 2-3 great games, would cap it off with 2-3 mediocre, inefficient games and he had also the worst luck because he didn't work hard enough. Should have worked with Grover in 2004, 2005 on his stamina issues. Jordan learned from his inefficiencies, became mentally stronger every year .
kareem's problems are: a) he was most dominant (and even got a boost in stats/dominance from the aba/nba split) in the least remembered era of the nba, the 1970's. i know i can't picture a single dominant/memorable kareem game from the 70's, even though his stats would suggest he was putting up 40/20 games on the regular. but that decade has been largely lost to history. b) he won most of his mvp's while not winning championships. even his 2nd championship is most remembered for magic dominating game 6 with kareem out. c) he won 5 titles on lakers teams that, as history would tell it, weren't his. even if he was definitely the most important player in 1980 and probably 1982, the fact that the lakers did nothing until magic was on the team makes it feel like they shouldn't count as full titles for kareem (saying he has 6 just isn't the same as saying MJ has six).
Much like Durant, Kareem was a weapon for his teams. An ultimate weapon, but a weapon nonetheless. As opposed to someone like Jordan who made his teams his own. He and Durant have lots in common.
The problem with c) is that Jordan won 0 titles without Pippen, he did nothing without Pippen. Kareem won a title without Magic. Can't say the same for Jordan. That's just the fact The thing is Jordan gets ALL the credit for those titles. That's the narrative. No one talks about Phil Jackson having like 78 titles wherever he goes, his credit gets diminished. No one talks about Pippen being one of the best defenders to ever play the game, his credit gets dimiished, that they picked up Rodman... IT's just all glory to Jordan but Kareem? Oh he played with MAgic. Yeah, he did. You're not going to win rings playing with borderline all-stars, we know this. You have to play with actual hall of fame caliber players. If The Rockets were to win in a restarted season, you best believe Westbrook had a huge part in it although people will give Harden the credit, it was his team That's the thing with Jordan, everything outside of the game is cementing his legacy as the best ever. Today on First Take, or yesterday, I don't know when, they were saying he'd average 50-60ppg in todays game. No doubt Jordan would be the best player in Today's game, but to act like guys like Lebron, Durant, Harden, Curry, wouldn't match up well with him thata he'd just make fools of them...enough of this disrespect to other eras. Lebron is significantly bigger than Jordan, just as athletic, just as smart. No one in the NBA can guard Curry, it doesn't even matter if you contest his shot, same as Harden, who has basically gamed the system so much that they keep changing rules for him. Durant is a freak of nature. Maybe Jordan would abuse these guys but he'd get it back. Could he dominate in this era? No doubt about it, but I get tired of hearing how no matter what he'd succeed, no arguments. I just feel like they hype up Jordan so much they are failing to see how special todays elite players truly are. We have a dude that literally pulls up from any where on the court in Curry and drains shots with ease, this **** I've never seen until he's done it. We have Lebron the size of a PF with guard skills and Durant the height of a Center with guard skills, and Harden bamboozles every defender he's seen with his tricks and his step back is unguardable. Jordan was a man. That's all I'm saying. He could be beat and teams have beat him. Is he one of the greatest players to ever play. Yes, no one doubts that. But sometimes we do need to see through the marketing haze to the truth.
