Given LeBron James’ epic performances in the 2018 NBA Playoffs, the debate about who is the greatest basketball player of all time has really heated up of late.
Michael Jordan versus LeBron James.
It would have been sacrilegious to even suggest MJ had a competitor to his throne just a few years ago, but it is undeniably a legitimate debate now. You can make a very strong case for either player to be named the GOAT.
Yet while such debates are fun fodder at the pub, they are ultimately somewhat silly arguments; especially when fans refuse to admit the greatness of whomever they don’t deem to be the greatest. That’s the point at which I check out, and actually start to question those fans’ basketball intelligence.
It has, however, been interesting to hear many people proclaim that Jordan is the right answer because he was “universally loved”.
It’s a flawed point to begin with, as popularity should have little impact on deciding who was a better player, but the real issue with using it as validation of Jordan’s superiority is that it’s simply not true. Jordan was most certainly not universally loved. At all.
Trust me, I was following basketball passionately during Jordan’s career – particularly at the height of his dominance – and there were plenty of people that disliked MJ, along with many who even questioned his basketball greatness.
The difference is, said people didn’t have the internet – especially Twitter – to enable their voice to be heard. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s a good thing or not, but it does bring me nicely to a hypothetical question: what if Twitter was around during Jordan’s era?
It was such a fun premise to think about that I came up with a series of tweets that I assure you would have been seen on Twitter and widely discussed as topics on sports shows in MJ’s day.
After Jordan was drafted third in the 1984 NBA Draft: 19/6/84
After Jordan wore a gold necklace in the 1985 All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest: 10/2/85
After Jordan broke his ankle in his second season: 1/4/86
After the Chicago Bulls were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the 1986 playoffs: 26/4/86
After Jordan’s historic 1986-87 season: 20/4/87
After Chicago were swept by the Celtics again in the first round of the 1987 playoffs: 28/4/87
After the Detroit Pistons eliminated the Bulls in the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals: 18/5/88
After Jordan’s triple-double run in 1989: 14/4/89
After the Pistons once again eliminated the Bulls from the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals – 6/5/90
After the Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1991 Finals: 12/6/91
After Scottie Pippen and four reserves led the Chicago Bulls’ fourth-quarter comeback against the Portland Trailblazers in Game 6 of the 1992 Finals: 14/6/92
After the New York Knicks beat Chicago in Game 2 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals: 25/5/93
After it was revealed Jordan was out gambling the night before the Bulls’ Game 2 Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Knicks: 28/5/93
After the Knicks’ Charles Smith was blocked four times in the waning seconds of Game 5 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals: 2/6/93
After Jordan announced his retirement: 6/10/93
After the 1993-94 regular season: 29/4/94
During Jordan’s minor league baseball career: 10/3/95
When MJ announced his comeback: 18/3/95
After Jordan’s first game back versus the Indiana Pacers: 19/3/95
After the Bulls lost Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semi-finals: 7/5/95
After ‘The Flu Game’, Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals: 11/6/97
After winning the 1998 NBA Championship against the Utah Jazz: 14/6/98
After Jordan announced his second retirement: 13/1/99
After Jordan announced he was returning to basketball with the Washington Wizards: 25/9/01
After Jordan announced his retirement after two season with the Wizards: 16/4/03
After some of Jordan’s gambling stories came to light: 21/10/05
After it was revealed Jordan had punched – and been punched by – teammates: 4/2/06
After Jordan began running the Charlotte Bobcats NBA franchise: 8/6/07
Ergh. I feel like a shower and stiff drink after writing those imaginary hot take tweets. Yet I’d be lying if I said a small part of me didn’t enjoy being a blowhard for a little while!
The point here – trust me, I do have one – is that as much as recency bias is a real thing, so too is nostalgia bias.
Any sense that LeBron gets an unfair advantage in the debate because his exploits are fresh in the mind, are negating by those that look back at Jordan’s career with rose-tinted glasses, and the convenience of forgetting some details.
By all means, celebrate Jordan’s greatness and even rate him at the undisputed GOAT, but don’t try to tell me he was universally loved, had no detractors, or never had moments of imperfection on (and off) the court.
More importantly and pertinently, don’t pretend he wouldn’t have copped exactly the same crap on social media that LeBron currently does. Jordan was certainly subjected to his own barrage of hot takes in his day – though the term hadn’t been invented yet – but he would have copped even more if he played in today’s era.
josh
Roar Rookie
just checked a Forbes article. Jordan made $110M from shoe sales in 2016/17, James next best at $32M. On top of that players in basketball and even college teams are playing in the Jordan brand, with the Jumpman logo, not the Nike swoosh. Speaking of legacy's can we include lineage? As James' sons appear to be on the same trajectory as their father. Maybe the James legacy will be generational?
josh
Roar Rookie
As an unabashed James fan, I dare say that in 15-20 years time Lebron will be viewed in rosier tones, the sheer weight of numbers helps. The immediacy of twitter and 24/7 sports reporting usually doesn't stand the test of time. I'm sure Jordan is glad he didn't play in the social media era.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Those evil lefties hey Brian. In my experience most of the posters on here are very right wing in their views. Maybe that is just on the league page.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I am a big fan of MJ, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that he was at his prime at a time I was growing up and first finding any interest in Basketball. While his exploits on the court are pretty awesome, and he was amazing to watch, I do wonder if his greatness was largely enhanced by the era in which he played. He came along just as sport was starting to get more global, and watching MJ back in those days was probably something that got lots of people into basketball who now look back on him with rose coloured glasses. I still marvel at the fact that 15 years after his final game of professional basketball, Nike still has a massive line of Jordan branded gear. Just went onto the Nike website, he's not even listed under Athletes in the filter, Jordan is a brand. What's the chances any of these current players will have managed to turn themselves into that sort of a brand that still lives on that long after their retirement. Pretty slim I reckon. Lebron may be up there with Jordan in the GOAT argument, but as a brand, nobody comes close, or probably ever will. And the nostalgia bias probably has a lot to do with that. Jordan came along at exactly the right time, had the amazing skills, plus charisma, plus business acumen to be able to turn himself into a brand that his kids will probably still be living off when he's no longer around!
Red Kev
Roar Guru
Reality has a left (liberal) bias.
Machooka
Roar Guru
Haha! Couldn't help but only hear Smith's loud never draw breath machine gun firing flat out passion laden you talkin' to me voice as I read along :) Excellent read Ryan... thanks!
Swampy
Guest
Enjoyable piece. I do miss the days in which you could argue about stuff without bringing up a thousand comparative stats though. In Australia though only journos use Twitter!
Brian Jones
Guest
Cmon , he’s been attacked and derided by the lamestream media from day one , with bogus stories, set ups and endless investigations.... he could hardly be blamed for going on the defensive. As far as the roar is concerned, they have obvious affiliations with leftist web pages and I would say I’ve seen at least half a dozen of their writers express similar views in one way or another, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen the opposing view from any , they wouldn’t have a job there if they did .
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
Blatant left leanings?! Trump?! Sheesh! And I’M the one waffling?! We’re only ‘here’ because you bizarrely brought us here with some strange political agenda. We’re so off topic - because of you - that it might be worth remembering what the point if the story was.
Mushi
Guest
Does this site really have blatant left leanings? As for holier than thou attitudes and constant derogatory comments isn't that the climate the head of state has deliberately encouraged and embraced?
Brian Jones
Guest
Geez you’ve made quite an assumption there Ryan. Not once did I condemn free speech, these people can say what they want to , I’m all for it . My point was their holier than thou attitude and their derogatory comments, such as , “people who voted for Trump are uneducated “, who are they to say , just because they say it , it’s right....Well a lot of people disagree . And the irony is your strong suit old boy ... Waffling on about free speech on a website that has blatant left leanings , when the left despises free speech. Have a meltdown, coz you’ve got another 6 yrs of Trump sit through yet.
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
I get it, you’re against freedom of speech. All good. It’s slightly ironic that you’re on an opinion site, expressing an opinion, that athletes shouldn’t express their opinion, but we’ll just overlook that, I guess.
peeko
Guest
people from downstate Ohio are not going to be Cavs fans. and he only got 51% of the vote
Brian Jones
Guest
The dribbling is the issue.
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
They should “shut up and dribble”, huh?
Brian Jones
Guest
I know it’s a bit “ off point” but , a lot ( and I would suggest the majority) of people are well n truly over elite sports people and gobby entertainment clowns, publicly stating their political views and suggesting that anyone who disagrees with them are stupid. It’s much more of a “thing to do” now than it was back in MJ’s day.
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
Don't forget Jordan saying "Republicans buy shoes, too", explaining his reluctance to have a social voice during his playing career. Imagine the sh*t storm now if he said that?!
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
Perhaps this should become an actual Twitter account?
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
When I have been on TV (after the 2013 NBA Finals, I was on Sky News) I clearly wasn't hot-takey enough!
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
I thought some MJ fans would take it in the wrong spirit, but I'm fine for it to not make too much of a ripple. It was so enjoyable to write, perhaps out was self-indulgent!