Michael Jordan was the biggest star on Earth at a time where basketball was stalling.
He got knocked down, mentally and physically, in a time where the rules were different and thugs were able to impose their will on this, a non-contact sport. He rose above it all, hitting ‘The Shot’ and giving us ‘The Shrug’, all the while being famously intense to such an extent that he would punch on with teammates in practice and freeze out opponents on court.
I mean, he even defeated aliens in a movie.
He won whenever he made the NBA Finals, which is incredible when you consider he did it six times. Oh, and he was also MVP in all six of those series.
Now you could argue the quality of some of the opposition, but let’s not do that because he beat everyone who came across his path. The other side of the coin is that he lost three straight times in the first round, then once in the second round and twice more in the conference finals before scaling the mountain.
In those last three losses, their nemesis was the Detroit Pistons who made life a (physical) living hell for Jordan. Once he found his way past the Pistons, the only things that stopped him were retirement and/or boredom.
Michael Jordan (Image: Flickr/Jason H Smith CC-BY-2.0)
By any measure, Jordan was the greatest of his time. No-one had averaged more points, played better two-way basketball or simply, just won when he needed to. Across 13 seasons as a Chicago Bull, his numbers were beyond reprisal – 31.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.5 steals on impressive shooting percentages.
All that while playing almost 39 minutes a game and playing all 82 games in seven seasons and missing just another seven games in five other seasons combined.
Opposing arenas were littered in Bulls jerseys every night, much like they are with the Warriors in 2018. Everyone wanted a glimpse of the guy who would walk in and rip the heart out of your chest if it meant winning the game.
A few years back, LeBron James talked about chasing a ghost, with that ghost being Jordan. On Sunday night, James (aged 33) played all 48 minutes of an elimination playoff game in the cauldron that is Boston’s home floor and dominated, despite his best teammate being Jeff Green.
Granted, the opposition were missing their two best players but have the most versatile, switchable defence in basketball and based their entire scheme around stopping James, but it was futile. Oh, and they were undefeated through ten games at home and had everything going their way expect one key thing – they didn’t have The King.
LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
That nickname has often seemed misplaced, as he bumbled his way through The Decision and found it hard to overpower J.J.Barea in the 2011 Finals. His body language has often left plenty to be desired, and he was widely criticised earlier in the playoffs for cruising through some games and looked disgusted with his teammates.
However, for all those flaws there can be no doubt now that he deserves his place alongside Jordan and a few others on the NBA’s Mt. Rushmore. Detractors will argue that he won’t match Jordan’s title haul, and they will be right. But he is about to compete in his ninth NBA Finals series, and his eighth in succession.
His current team is so bereft of talent that it is remarkable that we are having this conversation again. If he needs to post up, he does that. In Game 6 against Boston, he closed the game with back-to-back fade away three pointers and does what he wants offensively. If his teammates had hit the wide-open shots he continued to tee up in Game 7, that game is done by half time.
He passes to the pocket of players, time and time again, who are paid to make open shots and they miss those shots – how is that his fault? If Steve Kerr misses a wide open shot from Jordan’s pass in the 1998 Finals, maybe the Bulls don’t win a ring?
Would Jordan have been chastised for making the right basketball move, and not shooting, when passing to a paid shooter who missed an open shot? I bet we wouldn’t have done.
To try and break down the numbers does not do James any justice. In season 15, Game 1 of the NBA Finals will be Game #100 for James without a miss. He averaged 27.5 points, 8.6 rebounds and 9.1 assists a game and shot 54.2 per cent from the field and has bumped those numbers up to 34.0, 9.2 and 8.8 at still 54.2 per cent from the field in the playoffs.
Aside from his rookie season, he has never slipped under 25 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists a game. His playoff record is even better, and he has won the last Game 7’s in which he has competed. He is 33 years old, and still clearly the best player in the game (some arguments have been made for Kevin Durant, but this year’s playoffs have put that nonsense to rest)
Going into today’s game, it was expected that he would throw up a 40-12-12 but also accepted that it may not be enough. For the basketball world to be so blasé about those numbers is absurd, and TV commentary coverage was moving between criticising him for not being aggressive enough (because, in Mark Jackson’s words, that’s what MJ would do) and praising him for being a facilitator.
LeBron James. (Source: Wiki Commons)
But he did what he does, and what he always does, and we now move onto the NBA Finals and expect he will fly the flag but again lose against a far, far superior opponent. If he doesn’t win at least one game off his own back, he will be chastised.
If he cannot drag a fatally flawed team to a long series against a team that may have four of the best five players on the court, imbeciles will mock him and point to ‘another NBA Finals loss when MJ has none’.
To make this about Jordan versus James is pointless, and a waste of our time as fans. We should enjoy every minute of watching a guy who is crafting a career that is at least the equal of anyone else in NBA history. To argue against that is to argue against logic, should let’s all just sit back and acknowledge the Greatness that is LeBron.
Davico
Roar Pro
Well put. Agreed
astro
Guest
Definitely... I'm not sure any team in NBA history can beat the Warriors in a best of 7! They still seem to be playing in second gear!
Mushi
Guest
Did you mean to put that reply somewhere else?
Mushi
Guest
?
Swampy
Guest
Crowder was effectively traded for Hill. He was the piece that made the deal work. The lineup including hill and Crowder never existed.
Swampy
Guest
Wins Mushi. Title wins. That's why Crowder, Wade and Thomas were shifted. He also had a good contract which was attractive to get Utah in the deal. It was likely less about getting rid of Crowder than needing to put him in the deal to get George Hill you'd think.
Swampy
Guest
Doesn't suggest the nba had stalled. Says it went from strength to strength pre-jordan to the end of his Chicago reign.
mushi
Roar Guru
They still get pummeled in this next 5 games though right?
astro
Guest
And lets' no forget Wade either...If Wade played like he did for Miami in round one, this Cavs team (with a motivated Crowder) looks completely different and much more dangerous.
mushi
Roar Guru
Yep I'm not sure that Jordan's epitaph will read "Here lies a great team mate" Jordan by all accounts was a pyscopathic A hole, but man could he play basketball
Lara
Guest
The legend grows and his legacy will be profound. James is his own man, in his own time in basketball history and he is one who shall be remembered forever when he retires. Very few has given this much to a sport, yes Jordon did in his time and James keeps carry the torch in his and I for one just watch , admire and enjoy .
Mushi
Guest
His adjusted and real +/- were the best of any player in the trade. He does (or did) all the little things that good teams need to function. He puts a quick body on cutters, he moves off the ball rather than watching, makes quick decisions on passing, takes what the offence offers and takes away the first choice spot on D. He should have been the prototype for playing alongside lebron
astro
Guest
I think Crowder was one of the reasons Cleveland made that trade! He should have been a quality and affordable starter for them...not a liability.
astro
Guest
I'm not saying one is better than the other, but.......... I disagree that Lebron doesn't make his teammates better. Do you think Mo Williams would have been an All-Star without Lebron? Would Delly be on a $40mil contract without Lebron? Or JR? Or Thompson on big contracts? Let's not forget, MJ punched Steve Kerr in the face during training, so in the category of great teammates who make the guys around them better, I actually think Lebron has the edge.
Mushi
Guest
I would have stuck it out, but he didn't do himself any favours. His career is based on being the glue guy, you can't be a pouty glue guy.
Mushi
Guest
Hasn't seemed to be the case for other role players. Crowder was never ball dominant and his usage rate seemed the same. You'd think his game is perfectly suited to being a sidekick.
Leviathan
Roar Rookie
I still think Crowder should have been persisted with, the problem he was having was more often then not he was playing the 4 at 6'6, dude is lockdown perimeter defender, why play him inside? A line up of: Hill Crowder LBJ Green .... is highly switchable and would cramp most modern small line ups
Swampy
Guest
Is it a possibility that when playing as a sidekick to LeBron that a player appears to diminish in ability? Perhaps the way LeBron dominates the ball, uses his team mates and controls the game makes otherwise high quality individuals lesser parts in a machine that only has one end goal.
astro
Guest
Doesn't really answer the question, Swamp, but this is an interesting article from Fortune in 1998. It says: "In 1983, the year before Jordan entered the league, gross retail sales of merchandise were relatively tiny at $44 million. Over the next eight seasons--during the peak of the Bird-Magic era--sales grew quicker than a no-look pass. By the time Chicago won its first championship in 1990-91, merchandising sales had reached $1.56 billion--and Jordan and the Bulls were the darling of the retail industry. Gross retail sales peaked at $3.1 billion in 1995-96 (Jordan's first full season after baseball). The league says sales have hovered around $3 billion ever since, largely because of a softening in the domestic market. Except during Jordan's baseball blip, Bulls apparel has been the league's top seller since 1989-90. NBA and retailing sources estimate that Jordan's jerseys account for nearly a quarter of all sales through the 1990s...Jordan was responsible for 20% of the league's gross retail sales." http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1998/06/22/244166/index.htm
mushi
Roar Guru
I found one site with team by team numbers, unfortunately it’s a wall of text so not really easily exportable into excel for analysis. A quick read does seem to find that bar a couple of teams (Celtics – seemingly at capacity & nets/clippers – kept moving and they are the nets and the clippers) the real step change rise seemed to happen between 84-89. Some saw sporadic increases in the 70s but the trend was deifntiely down coming into the 80s (and even the “high” points would still have likely been below break even). Even though the attendance rose mid 80s (post the arrival of jordan BTW) the money and international appeal came with the new TV deal in 89. In the tape delay era it really sounds like amateur hour – something like only 6 games a week televised on delay (when there was what 50 games played a week?). Bascially you couldn’t follow the NBA on TV which made it really hard to attract new fans. Like I said I think the Jordan arrival was probably coincidental, the talent and quality of the game in the early 80s was like the “production process” and the mid to late 80s was just the final sale. Remember the speed of information in the early 80s was nothing compared to what we know today, getting mass media traction was really difficult. So our memories of events 35-40 years ago probably misalign the talent/quality of the game with the popularity, but that talent period was required to get the momentum. But the real driver was Stern becoming commissioner (84?) and insisting on in house content development, rather than relying on the networks, that really laid the platform for success. (I could write a dissertation on what I think is the major challenge facing professional sports moving forward in the evolving media environment that will see commercially successful leagues being those that already have in house production rather than just being a commoditised input that most leagues mistakenly think has always been valuable) Judging by the youtube clips and celebrity engagement the new deal in 1989 was there big shot, and they nailed it – in no small part thanks to sports most marketable man Michael Jordan (though I do wonder if it was symbiotic and part of the Jordan “myth” is due to him being the face of the rise).