Michael Jordan's legacy a bit misunderstood

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Michael Jordan - witness the greatest of all time

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sourced by Frank Liao

I was thinking about Michael Jordan's legacy as the greatest basketball player to ever grace the planet and how much of it has been misunderstood by the story tellers.  I was born in 1979 so I was just old enough to remember Jordan at his peak '87-'93.  I became an avid NBA fan in 1987 (thanks to my brothers) and I remember watching Jordan and thinking God was disguised as an NBA player (exactly like Bird had quipped after Jordan's 61 point outburst in the '86 play-offs at the Garden).

But to hear people talk about Jordan today, it's all about his stats.  You know, it's like he has six rings, he has all these scoring titles, he won this many MVPs, made this many All-NBA teams, he shot this percentage, or he did this against the Cavs in '89.  Look, all of that is part of the Jordan legacy, no doubt.  But as far as I'm concerned, stats are insignificant in terms of how I judge the NBA legends.

Jordan was the greatest player that I have ever seen.  Back in '89, Jordan was unequivocally, the greatest player on the planet.  My favorite player was Magic, but Ervin Johnson was no Michael Jordan.   Watching Jordan play was a transcendental experience.

It's so idiotic to talk about today's NBA stars and compare them to Jordan by stats or by rings.  Kobe would have had a chance at eight rings in his career if he didn't get himself into that mess in Eagle, CO.  But I don't care if Kobe ends up winning seven rings or more.  He is no Jordan.

Jordan started his career by playing on one of the worst teams in the NBA when he got drafted by the Chicago Bulls in '84.  Were his teams in the mid-'80s ever on the same planet as the 80s' Lakers, Celtics, or Pistons?  No way.  But the one edge that Jordan's Bulls had over the Lakers and Celtics was that Jordan came into the league five years after Magic and Bird.  Bird's back gave out in '88, Magic was forced to retire in '91, and Isiah rapidly declined after '92.  Jordan just kept on churning, and by '92, he was the only one left.  Jordan was always number One, but by '92, number two was so far behind it wasn't even funny.  Jordan had no more competition.

The big myth with Jordan is that he was this ultimate winner and the proof of this greatness is that Jordan won six rings in the '90s.  The last two came against the '97-'98 Jazz, a team led by two aging, mid-30s veterans in Stockton and Malone.  The Jazz were pretty good, but there's no way the Jazz would have made it past the '84-'88 Lakers if they had met in the WCF.  

Nobody ever mentions that Jordan's Bulls won six championships against six really good but not great teams.  Did the Bulls ever get tested against truly dominant competition?  Never.  The best team they matched up against was the '92 Blazers.  The Blazers had better players 2-8, but Jordan was such an alpha dog that he was able to single-handedly destroy the Blazers.  But what if the '92 Bulls played against the '83 76ers?  Any chance of the Bulls winning that series?  Zilch.

The '90s Bulls very rarely played against teams with deep benches.  The NBA rapidly expanded from 23 to 29 teams in a short span of eight seasons from '88-'96.  They added a total of 72 players to the league, completely wiping out the talent pool of the NBA.  Teams like the '94 Knicks were able to bludgeon their way into the NBA Finals simply because the talent pool was so bad.  Of course, the Knicks would have never even made it to the '94 Finals had Jordan not decided to practice hitting curve balls for that one season.

I think the '96 Bulls' record setting 72 victories in the regular season has been overrated.  They played against the '96 Raptors and '96 Grizzlies a total of six times, which were basically guarantee victories.  How many guarantee victories did the '86 Celtics have on their schedule?  None to be exact.  As great as the '96 Bulls were, I think they would have struggled against Boston's Big Three.  And remember, the '96 Jordan was not at his peak anymore.  He was still amazing, but not invincible like he was from '87-'93.

With NBA legends, I judge them by how they performed in the game relative to the situation.  You know why I respect Isiah Thomas the player?  His Pistons had basically a bunch of role players, yet because they played as a group, they were able to win back-to-back championships in '89-'90.  You wanna know why Jordan didn't win more than six rings in his career?  It's the Pistons eliminating the Bulls back-to-back-to-back years in the play-offs before the Bulls won three in a row from '91-'93.  Phil Jackson eventually beat Chuck Daly in '91, but not before being on the losing end of three consecutive defeats to the Pistons from '88-'90 (two as an assistant, one as a head coach).

So how should we remember Jordan?  Personally, I think his every movement on the court spoke of perfection.  It wasn't simply what he was doing, but how he was doing it.  When Jordan came into the league, Jordan represented the new school.  Even though Isiah and company tried to freeze him out in the '85 All-Star game, the old school eventually accepted him and crowned him as the greatest ever. Jordan was brilliant, and he wanted everybody in the world to know it.  Jordan was just a step above everybody.  His nickname, "Air" describes it all.