Michael Jeffrey Jordan…His Royal Airness Is Still The Greatest Ever

Well Michael Jordan turned 50 years old yesterday. I’m 5 years younger than he is and I’ve been around long enough to watch alotta basketball. From Dr. J to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to Isaiah Thomas to Michael Jordan, to Kobe Bryant and right about now…to Lebron James. There have been a lot of comparisons as well. Today we go Hard In The Paint on Michael Jordan and his incomparable stature in the NBA…from a fan’s perspective, of course. Leggo.

Well as previously discussed, Michael Jordan turned 50 yesterday. I’ve seen this guy play for a long, long time and he actually converted me from a Laker fan to a Jordan fan. So much so that when he retired for good, I no longer followed any specific team. If Mike wasn’t playing, I no longer had a favorite team. His work ethic, his will to win, his ability to get the best out of his teammates such as Craig Hodges, John Paxton, BJ Armstrong, Steve Kerr, Bill Cartwright, Bill Wennington, Luc Longley and Will Purdue to his calming influence on Dennis Rodman to the historic greatness of Scotty Pippen. Yes…Michael Jordan made all of these men better basketball players and to not short change them…they all wanted to be better basketball players. He demanded greatness from them and they accepted that challenge. You got questions, I got 6 answers…the total number of NBA titles he has.
You want to raise me a Kobe Bryant, I will raise you a “Michael Jordan never played with a dominant center.” You want to raise me Kobe’s competitive spirit, I will raise you that Kobe’s competitive spirit while it mimics Michael’s…it still pales in comparison because Kobe has not been able to do that which Michael excelled at, which is to make his teammates better. Sure Jordan may have bullied his teammates at practice but on the floor, out in public they were all on one accord (except for Horace Grant who left for Orlando because he wanted more touches…never won another title by the way). With Kobe (in this media age), he has no problems challenging teammates publicly. And you know what irritates me about this…those very same teammates seemingly go elsewhere and play better in another uniform than the “Laker” uniform they just traded in. Huh? What? Also, Michael Jordan did not give a damn about what the media said about him…there was no way in hell he would’ve ever stopped shooting the ball (please see the Phoenix Suns series circa 2006).
Now here comes Lebron James and supposedly he is the next coming and everyone is losing their collective minds about this guy. Hey, don’t get me wrong. I like the James too but here’s the problem. Michael Jordan never stopped Michael Jordan on the basketball court and if anyone ever raised the question or challenged him…he made examples out of them…on the basketball court. Let me say this before I continue, the only guy to slow Michael Jordan down on the basketball court was one of the quietest guys in the game and his name is Joe Dumars. That being said, I’ve seen Lebron James take himself out of games. That’s right I said Lebron James takes himself out of games. Oh trust me, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry may talk a good game but neither one of them can guard Lebron when he puts his mind to it. Not only that but I’ve seen and read how other players verbally assault Lebron James and he not do anything about it. Never and I mean never have I seen someone challenge Michael Jordan and not pay for it in spades. Think I’m joking, ask Gerald Wilkins about that whole “Jordan Stopper” comment.
See where I’m going with this? These are the closest two comparisons to Michael Jordan and they are not even close. They are not in his league and its no insult to them but it appears there will only be one Michael Jordan…ever. Athletes walk around today with huge “sneaker” contracts. They can all thank Michael Jordan for that. Kobe switched from Adidas to Nike. My belief is that the urge to follow in MJ’s footsteps had something to do with “the switch.” Dewayne Wade switched from Converse to Nike and he along with Chris Paul and Carmello Anthony are basically the new spokesmen for the Jordan Brand. Yeah, that’s right…Michael Jordan doesn’t just have a sneaker, he has a brand and the reasoning for that brand is because of what he did on the basketball court. The NBA “logo” himself…Jerry West stated that Michael Jordan “should be” the NBA logo and you know what…he didn’t get too much of an argument from anyone. You know why; because those of us in our 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s still remember #23…Michael Jeffrey Jordan. By the way…Mike, Hakeem Olajuwon thanks you for taking two years off.
Then, there are the list of NBA Hall of Famers (and people who should be in the NBA Hall of Fame) who never got a title because of his Royal Airness…Carl Malone, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, Gary Payton (until he got a ring with Miami), Shawn Kemp, Charles Barkley. Look at this list again. Some of these people are considered to be the best 50 players the NBA has ever seen. I say that one more time…some of these people have been voted in the top 50 of players to have ever laced up a pair of sneakers and played in the National Basketball Association and he and his teammates stopped them all from getting that elusive NBA Championship. Remember when I mentioned Hakeem Olajuwon earlier? There are those including myself who believe Hakeem got his rings because Michael had retired from the game. We’ll never know for sure but that’s our belief.
Need more proof of just how great Michael Jordan is? Arguably the best player in the world right now (Kobe Bean Bryant…that’s right, I said it) patterned his exact game after…you guessed it, Michael Jordan all the way down to the way he walks around on the court. That killer instinct that people keep saying Lebron doesn’t have; Michael had it in spades. By the way, Lebron James said himself that no one and I repeat no one in the league should ever wear 23 again. Just to show how serious he was, when he left Cleveland for Miami…he switched from #23 to #6. Talk about respect. Sure I could go on and on and on about Michael Jordan but if you’re not old enough to remember ever seeing him play, just look at Kobe and then imagine better. If you want to know just how far his legacy has touched the NBA itself, look no further than the Miami Heat who retired Jordan’s jersey. And you know what; Michael never played a game for them…not one single game. That my fine people is the epitome of greatness. I’m out.