http://zoomtens.com/espn-has-lied-t...n-is-not-the-greatest-nba-player-of-all-time/
Michael Jordan is widely considered to be one of the best NBA players of all time – on most people’s lists, he is #1. And why not, right? With six championships, ten scoring titles, five MVP trophies, a highly praised defensive ability, and an absurdly marketed brand that has ascended to international fame, his influence over the game is everywhere. You cannot escape the name Michael Jordan even on a monthly basis if you tried.
But is Michael Jordan actually the greatest NBA player of all time? This is a question I have difficulty with myself. As an avid NBA fan, I would not be hesitant about calling him the greatest scorer of all time – with an average of 30.1 points a game, there is little doubt that Michael Jordan was, along with Wilt Chamberlain, the most dominant offensive force this game has ever seen. However, when I think of him as the greatest NBA player of all time, I can’t help but wonder if he actually is or not. In my mind, players like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, and (with a couple more titles) Lebron James all have an equally good stake at claiming the highly coveted title of “GOAT” – Greatest of All Time.
Here are ten reasons why Michael Jordan may not be considered the greatest NBA player in history.
10. He Won His Titles In an Era of When Expansion Teams Were Added, Diluting the Overall Quality of the NBA
Photo by stab at sleep, via Flickr Creative Commons
Right before and during his championship reign in the 90’s, several teams were added to the league, including the Orlando Magic, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, and Vancouver Grizzlies. It is a widely known truth that expansion teams rarely ever have winning seasons in their first few years in the league, as the talent pool is diminished due to the fact that a team has to fill a roster with completely new players, many of which have possibly never played professional sports before. Michael Jordan won 6 championships between 1991 and 1998; between 1988 and 1996, six teams were added to the league, making the era of Michael Jordan one that had lots of newbie teams.
9. MJ Couldn’t Get the Washington Bullets to the Playoffs
By DefenseLINK [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
I get it, he was way past his prime and not the Michael Jordan that averaged 32, 8, and 8 in the 80s. Still, we are talking about the “greatest player of all time,” only three years removed from his most recent championship run in Chicago. Certainly, you would expect that the greatest player of all time would be able to help his team get at the very least into the playoffs? Perhaps his leadership and wisdom could have outdone his ability at the time, but no, the Wizards did not make the playoffs in either of the two years MJ was with the team.
8. He Was a Huge Ball Hog
Photo by cliff1066™ Via Flickr Creative Commons
Much like Kobe Bryant in today’s NBA, Michael Jordan was a huge ball hog, often taking as many as 30 shots a game in the 86-87 season alone. Basketball is a team sport, and hogging the ball like he did back then is a large reason why the bulls were not able to make it out of the first round of the playoffs his first three seasons in the league.
7. Michael Jordan Couldn’t Get Past the First Round of the Playoffs Without Scottie Pippen
Photo by DisneyDena, Via Flickr Creative Commons
In the 1980s, the world was inebriated with the potent shotmaking ability that was Michael Jordan – in his third year in the league, he averaged an astonishing 37.1 points, which is the highest point total average of all time out of all NBA players not named Wilt Chamberlain. His first three years in the league, the Chicago Bulls did make it to the playoffs; despite averaging an absurd 43 points per game in the 1986 playoffs, as well as incredibly high scoring numbers in 1985 and 1987, Michael Jordan was not able to get his team out of the first round of the playoffs in those three years.
With Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan found an athlete who is widely considered one of the greatest defenders of all time. With Pippen, the Bulls finally had an incredibly pesky defender who constantly took the Bulls to deep playoff runs. Interesting note: Pippen has a better career winning record than Michael Jordan.
6. The NBA Teams He Defeated In the Finals Were Overrated
Photo by cliff1066™ Via Flickr Creative Commons
One of the staples of MJ’s legacy is that each of the teams he defeated in the finals had very memorable superstars. Although this is true, when looked at a bit deeper, these teams may be a little overrated. Let’s take a quick look at the teams Michael Jordan defeated in the finals and how they might be a little overrated:
1991 – Los Angeles Lakers – a good team, but point guard Magic Johnson was on his way out, and James Worthy was not nearly as effective as he was in the 80s. Also, the team no longer had Michael Cooper like they had in the 1980s, who was widely considered one of the best defensive players of all time. Needless to say, this Lakers team also no longer had the talents of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar like they did in the 80s – this Lakers team was a far cry from the Lakers that dominated the 80s.
1992 – Portland Trail Blazers – Outside of Clyde Drexler, this team boasted the legendary talents of…Jerome Kersey and Clifford Robinson. Moving on!
1993 – Phoenix Suns – Probably one of the better teams that MJ played, the Suns were led by then-MVP Charles Barkley, who was one of the league’s best power forwards. Outside of Barkley, this team lacked quality interior defense, a persistent theme throughout Jordan’s title run that was also a big reason why the Bulls won the 1991 and 1992 NBA finals.
1996 – Seattle Supersonics – the famous duel between Gary Payton and Michael Jordan, unfortunately, was incredibly one-sided. The Seattle Supersonics really only had two good players, Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. Kemp was an effective forward, but his work ethic left much to be desired, and the team did not have the depth that the Bulls had, with Pippen and Dennis Rodman working as incredible defenders while Michael Jordan constantly took shot after shot, making only 46% of his shots, which is low for the “greatest player of all time.”
1997-1998 – Utah Jazz – Probably the best team Jordan faced in the finals, this Jazz team was admittedly stocked with high-level talent, which included the likes of John Stockton and Karl Malone. Still, this team paled in comparison to the 1980’s Utah Jazz, who had defensive presence Mark Eaton to stop the offensive teams in the low post.
As we can see, the teams Jordan faced in 1990s finals either had low post defensive issues, were not as good as they were in the 80s (which is why they could be overrated), or lacked great depth.
5. He Was Not a Great Playmaker
Michael Jordan wasn’t a horrible playmaker – although he was often selfish with the ball, he did average about 5 assists per game for his career. Still, his playmaking abilities left much to be desired, as his strategy was often to use his virtuosic scoring to lead his teams to victory, rather than to pass the ball to teammates in order to create difficult switches for the defense. This strategy only worked well when he had Pippen and either Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman to contribute to a deep defensive run, and did not work in the 80s before the Bulls drafted Scottie Pippen.
4. He Constantly Lost in the 1980s
Young Isiah Thomas – Photo by spablab Via Flickr Creative Commons
Michael Jordan lost to the Detroit Pistons three straight times in the playoffs from 1987-1990, and never made it to the finals in the era of the “Showtime” Lakers, Bird’s deeply talented roster of Celtics, Erving’s 76ers, and a Utah Jazz team that was in their dominant prime. In the 1980s, NBA teams were much better and much deeper than they were in the 1990s, mostly due to the fact that the 90s were littered with low-quality expansion teams, as previously mentioned in this article.
3. Several Other Players Are Qualified for the Throne
Photo by cliff1066™ Via Flickr Creative Commons
Bill Russell led his team to eleven championships, Wilt Chamberlain actually averaged 50 points and 25 rebounds one season, Magic Johnson could play point guard as well as he could play center, Larry Bird was both an offensive threat and a great playmaker who dominated in the 1980s, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the all-time scoring champion with an equal number of championship rings to MJ and even six MVP trophies on top of that. I am not saying that Michael Jordan is definitively not the greatest NBA player of all time, but there are several other players who could compete for that title. Even Lebron James is a more efficient shooter and better playmaker than Michael ever was.
2. In 1998, the NBA Was Really Bad, Giving the Bulls An Easy Path to Be Number One
Photo by supportcaringllc Via Flickr Creative Commons
The 90s are mistakenly seen as a golden era of basketball – in 1998, the year MJ won his sixth title, there were six teams that did not make it past twenty wins. Wow! That means over 20% of the NBA lost more than sixty games, marking one of the least talented years of NBA basketball in all of sports history. Michael Jordan essentially cake-walked to the playoffs and to the finals that year, as the league was very one-sided in favor of just a few teams.
1. After His First Retirement, His Bulls Were Practically As Good As Before He Retired
Photo by Dubi Kaufmann Via Flickr Creative Commons
When a great player leaves his team, typically the team falls apart after he leaves. This can be seen in a number of instances: when Lebron left the Cavs in 2010, the Cavs record dropped by over 40 wins the following season. When Shaq left the Lakers, they had difficulty making it to the postseason the first few years following his departure. And even as recently as this past season, the Celtics have become a shell of themselves after Pierce and Garnett left.
So when the “greatest player of all time” left the Chicago Bulls after his first retirement, you would imagine they lost by like, at least 20 more games the following season, right?
In actuality, led by the defensive grit of Scottie Pippen, the Bulls dropped only two more games than in the previous season. Yeap, you read that right, two games. With Michael Jordan in the 92-93 season, the Bulls had 57 wins, and in the 93-94 season without Jordan, they had a “paltry” 55 wins. Don’t you think that after the “Greatest Player of All Time” retires, his team would completely sink without him? Think again.
Michael Jordan is widely considered to be one of the best NBA players of all time – on most people’s lists, he is #1. And why not, right? With six championships, ten scoring titles, five MVP trophies, a highly praised defensive ability, and an absurdly marketed brand that has ascended to international fame, his influence over the game is everywhere. You cannot escape the name Michael Jordan even on a monthly basis if you tried.
But is Michael Jordan actually the greatest NBA player of all time? This is a question I have difficulty with myself. As an avid NBA fan, I would not be hesitant about calling him the greatest scorer of all time – with an average of 30.1 points a game, there is little doubt that Michael Jordan was, along with Wilt Chamberlain, the most dominant offensive force this game has ever seen. However, when I think of him as the greatest NBA player of all time, I can’t help but wonder if he actually is or not. In my mind, players like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, and (with a couple more titles) Lebron James all have an equally good stake at claiming the highly coveted title of “GOAT” – Greatest of All Time.
Here are ten reasons why Michael Jordan may not be considered the greatest NBA player in history.
10. He Won His Titles In an Era of When Expansion Teams Were Added, Diluting the Overall Quality of the NBA
Photo by stab at sleep, via Flickr Creative Commons
Right before and during his championship reign in the 90’s, several teams were added to the league, including the Orlando Magic, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, and Vancouver Grizzlies. It is a widely known truth that expansion teams rarely ever have winning seasons in their first few years in the league, as the talent pool is diminished due to the fact that a team has to fill a roster with completely new players, many of which have possibly never played professional sports before. Michael Jordan won 6 championships between 1991 and 1998; between 1988 and 1996, six teams were added to the league, making the era of Michael Jordan one that had lots of newbie teams.
9. MJ Couldn’t Get the Washington Bullets to the Playoffs
By DefenseLINK [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
I get it, he was way past his prime and not the Michael Jordan that averaged 32, 8, and 8 in the 80s. Still, we are talking about the “greatest player of all time,” only three years removed from his most recent championship run in Chicago. Certainly, you would expect that the greatest player of all time would be able to help his team get at the very least into the playoffs? Perhaps his leadership and wisdom could have outdone his ability at the time, but no, the Wizards did not make the playoffs in either of the two years MJ was with the team.
8. He Was a Huge Ball Hog
Photo by cliff1066™ Via Flickr Creative Commons
Much like Kobe Bryant in today’s NBA, Michael Jordan was a huge ball hog, often taking as many as 30 shots a game in the 86-87 season alone. Basketball is a team sport, and hogging the ball like he did back then is a large reason why the bulls were not able to make it out of the first round of the playoffs his first three seasons in the league.
7. Michael Jordan Couldn’t Get Past the First Round of the Playoffs Without Scottie Pippen
Photo by DisneyDena, Via Flickr Creative Commons
In the 1980s, the world was inebriated with the potent shotmaking ability that was Michael Jordan – in his third year in the league, he averaged an astonishing 37.1 points, which is the highest point total average of all time out of all NBA players not named Wilt Chamberlain. His first three years in the league, the Chicago Bulls did make it to the playoffs; despite averaging an absurd 43 points per game in the 1986 playoffs, as well as incredibly high scoring numbers in 1985 and 1987, Michael Jordan was not able to get his team out of the first round of the playoffs in those three years.
With Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan found an athlete who is widely considered one of the greatest defenders of all time. With Pippen, the Bulls finally had an incredibly pesky defender who constantly took the Bulls to deep playoff runs. Interesting note: Pippen has a better career winning record than Michael Jordan.
6. The NBA Teams He Defeated In the Finals Were Overrated
Photo by cliff1066™ Via Flickr Creative Commons
One of the staples of MJ’s legacy is that each of the teams he defeated in the finals had very memorable superstars. Although this is true, when looked at a bit deeper, these teams may be a little overrated. Let’s take a quick look at the teams Michael Jordan defeated in the finals and how they might be a little overrated:
1991 – Los Angeles Lakers – a good team, but point guard Magic Johnson was on his way out, and James Worthy was not nearly as effective as he was in the 80s. Also, the team no longer had Michael Cooper like they had in the 1980s, who was widely considered one of the best defensive players of all time. Needless to say, this Lakers team also no longer had the talents of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar like they did in the 80s – this Lakers team was a far cry from the Lakers that dominated the 80s.
1992 – Portland Trail Blazers – Outside of Clyde Drexler, this team boasted the legendary talents of…Jerome Kersey and Clifford Robinson. Moving on!
1993 – Phoenix Suns – Probably one of the better teams that MJ played, the Suns were led by then-MVP Charles Barkley, who was one of the league’s best power forwards. Outside of Barkley, this team lacked quality interior defense, a persistent theme throughout Jordan’s title run that was also a big reason why the Bulls won the 1991 and 1992 NBA finals.
1996 – Seattle Supersonics – the famous duel between Gary Payton and Michael Jordan, unfortunately, was incredibly one-sided. The Seattle Supersonics really only had two good players, Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. Kemp was an effective forward, but his work ethic left much to be desired, and the team did not have the depth that the Bulls had, with Pippen and Dennis Rodman working as incredible defenders while Michael Jordan constantly took shot after shot, making only 46% of his shots, which is low for the “greatest player of all time.”
1997-1998 – Utah Jazz – Probably the best team Jordan faced in the finals, this Jazz team was admittedly stocked with high-level talent, which included the likes of John Stockton and Karl Malone. Still, this team paled in comparison to the 1980’s Utah Jazz, who had defensive presence Mark Eaton to stop the offensive teams in the low post.
As we can see, the teams Jordan faced in 1990s finals either had low post defensive issues, were not as good as they were in the 80s (which is why they could be overrated), or lacked great depth.
5. He Was Not a Great Playmaker
Michael Jordan wasn’t a horrible playmaker – although he was often selfish with the ball, he did average about 5 assists per game for his career. Still, his playmaking abilities left much to be desired, as his strategy was often to use his virtuosic scoring to lead his teams to victory, rather than to pass the ball to teammates in order to create difficult switches for the defense. This strategy only worked well when he had Pippen and either Horace Grant or Dennis Rodman to contribute to a deep defensive run, and did not work in the 80s before the Bulls drafted Scottie Pippen.
4. He Constantly Lost in the 1980s
Young Isiah Thomas – Photo by spablab Via Flickr Creative Commons
Michael Jordan lost to the Detroit Pistons three straight times in the playoffs from 1987-1990, and never made it to the finals in the era of the “Showtime” Lakers, Bird’s deeply talented roster of Celtics, Erving’s 76ers, and a Utah Jazz team that was in their dominant prime. In the 1980s, NBA teams were much better and much deeper than they were in the 1990s, mostly due to the fact that the 90s were littered with low-quality expansion teams, as previously mentioned in this article.
3. Several Other Players Are Qualified for the Throne
Photo by cliff1066™ Via Flickr Creative Commons
Bill Russell led his team to eleven championships, Wilt Chamberlain actually averaged 50 points and 25 rebounds one season, Magic Johnson could play point guard as well as he could play center, Larry Bird was both an offensive threat and a great playmaker who dominated in the 1980s, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the all-time scoring champion with an equal number of championship rings to MJ and even six MVP trophies on top of that. I am not saying that Michael Jordan is definitively not the greatest NBA player of all time, but there are several other players who could compete for that title. Even Lebron James is a more efficient shooter and better playmaker than Michael ever was.
2. In 1998, the NBA Was Really Bad, Giving the Bulls An Easy Path to Be Number One
Photo by supportcaringllc Via Flickr Creative Commons
The 90s are mistakenly seen as a golden era of basketball – in 1998, the year MJ won his sixth title, there were six teams that did not make it past twenty wins. Wow! That means over 20% of the NBA lost more than sixty games, marking one of the least talented years of NBA basketball in all of sports history. Michael Jordan essentially cake-walked to the playoffs and to the finals that year, as the league was very one-sided in favor of just a few teams.
1. After His First Retirement, His Bulls Were Practically As Good As Before He Retired
Photo by Dubi Kaufmann Via Flickr Creative Commons
When a great player leaves his team, typically the team falls apart after he leaves. This can be seen in a number of instances: when Lebron left the Cavs in 2010, the Cavs record dropped by over 40 wins the following season. When Shaq left the Lakers, they had difficulty making it to the postseason the first few years following his departure. And even as recently as this past season, the Celtics have become a shell of themselves after Pierce and Garnett left.
So when the “greatest player of all time” left the Chicago Bulls after his first retirement, you would imagine they lost by like, at least 20 more games the following season, right?
In actuality, led by the defensive grit of Scottie Pippen, the Bulls dropped only two more games than in the previous season. Yeap, you read that right, two games. With Michael Jordan in the 92-93 season, the Bulls had 57 wins, and in the 93-94 season without Jordan, they had a “paltry” 55 wins. Don’t you think that after the “Greatest Player of All Time” retires, his team would completely sink without him? Think again.
Don't make an article going at Jordan and mention the most overrated player in NBA history. Played on stacked teams and couldn't even shoot over 50 percent as a big man. Adjusting for pace, his stats aren't comparable to any other player who is mentioned as GOAT. He says ESPN has lied to us, but he is falling for the biggest lie being passed around in basketball.
