Michael Jordan: GOAT

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
23 Stats About #23

1) Going strictly by seeding, Jordan was never upset in the playoffs. Against teams seeded the same or lower, Jordan's teams had a perfect 24-0 series record.

2) In the 11 seasons he played at least 20 games with the Chicago Bulls, Jordan finished in the top 5 of MVP voting 10 times. The exception? His rookie season when he finished sixth.

5) Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon are the only players in NBA history to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.

7) Jordan played in 35 NBA Finals games. He was his team’s outright leading scorer in 32 of them with Scottie Pippen (twice) and Toni Kukoc (once) the only others to lead the Bulls in scoring.

8) Jordan is the only player to win an NBA title, NCAA title and multiple Olympic gold medals.

9) In the 1993 NBA Finals, Jordan scored 38.4 percent of the Bulls' total points. That’s the largest percentage of team points any player has been responsible for in a single NBA Finals.

17) There were five seasons in which Jordan led the NBA in both Player Efficiency Rating and usage percentage. All other players in NBA history have combined to do it four times, with no other player doing it more than once.

19) Jordan shot 49.7 percent from the floor for his career. He had 10 seasons in which he shot better than 47 percent from the floor, something Bryant has not done a single time. Bryant would need to make his next 2,496 shots in order to catch Jordan in career field-goal percentage.

22) Jordan’s title teams did not blow leads. In the six seasons they won the title, they were 42-0 in the playoffs and 210-5 in the regular season when leading by 10 or more entering the fourth quarter.
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I've gotten into several fairly heated arguments about Jordan vs. Kobe, and to me it's not even up for debate. Kobe has certainly had a fantastic career, but I don't believe that we will ever see a player better than MJ.

 
It's not up for debate. Anyone who thinks it is didn't actually see Jordan play. That's the only reasonable explanation. There's a huge distance between Jordan and whoever you want to argue is the 2nd best of all time.

 
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The Dude said:
It's not up for debate. Anyone who thinks it is didn't actually see Jordan play. That's the only reasonable explanation. There's a huge distance between Jordan and whoever you want to argue is the 2nd best of all time.
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I'm not sure it's a huge distance. But Bill Russell is #2 without a doubt.

 
No doubt Jordan is the greatest basketball player we've ever seen. That much, isn't up for debate... BUT I do have a problem with people arguing that Jordan was somehow a better dunker then either LaVine, or Gordon.... The dunks those kids were doing the other night were significantly better then anything Jordan, 'Nique, etc. ever did in competition.... Evolution!

 
StPaulHusker said:
The Dude said:
It's not up for debate. Anyone who thinks it is didn't actually see Jordan play. That's the only reasonable explanation. There's a huge distance between Jordan and whoever you want to argue is the 2nd best of all time.
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I'm not sure it's a huge distance. But Bill Russell is #2 without a doubt.
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Tell me you're joking....

disclosure: I am one who believes there is a distinction between how good of a basketball player you are, and how many championships you've won. The two are both separate, and inclusive. For me championships are a tie-breaker, but actual talent trumps all..... And eras matter, guys are just better now.

 
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Jordan was a player that I absolutely couldn't stop watching when he was on the court. He was that different than anything anyone had ever seen before.

I was watching a little NBA the other day and some announcer made some idiotic statement that Steph Curry could be the best ever....I about chocked on my own vomit.

Not only did Jordan do things physically that nobody has ever been able to do in a game consistently, he was such an amazing competitor that he literally would take over a game like I have never seen before or since.

Kobe was a great player. But, sorry......he doesn't sniff Jordan's jock strap.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
Jordan was a player that I absolutely couldn't stop watching when he was on the court. He was that different than anything anyone had ever seen before.

I was watching a little NBA the other day and some announcer made some idiotic statement that Steph Curry could be the best ever....I about chocked on my own vomit.

Not only did Jordan do things physically that nobody has ever been able to do in a game consistently, he was such an amazing competitor that he literally would take over a game like I have never seen before or since.

Kobe was a great player. But, sorry......he doesn't sniff Jordan's jock strap.
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Kobe gets the Jordan comparisons because he is the most "Jordan-like" player we have seen. Plays like him (not quite as good) and has that competitive fire that you rarely see in people. I'll miss watching Kobe play, because I really believe he is the last Alpha dog in the NBA. None of the current elite players have that competitive fire that we have seen from Jordan, and Kobe the past few decades.

In Curry's defense, he is also doing things on the basketball court that we've never seen before. The kid is amazing. However, it is much to soon to throw him in the conversation with Jordan..... Or even Kobe, and Lebron for that matter.

 
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There may not be other players right now that play like Jordan and Kobe to a lesser extent. But, there will be in the future. Somewhere out there there is a little kid with that type of talent in them that we will see in the future.

As for Curry, the kid is an absolutely amazing shooter. I don't remember anyone who is as accurate as he is shooting with such a quick release. With his movement without the ball, he gets open and when they pass him the ball, the ball is gone immediately so it is almost impossible to defend. He doesn't have the physical stature though to be able to be a player like Jordan or Kobe.

 
BigRedBuster said:
There may not be other players right now that play like Jordan and Kobe to a lesser extent. But, there will be in the future. Somewhere out there there is a little kid with that type of talent in them that we will see in the future.

As for Curry, the kid is an absolutely amazing shooter. I don't remember anyone who is as accurate as he is shooting with such a quick release. With his movement without the ball, he gets open and when they pass him the ball, the ball is gone immediately so it is almost impossible to defend. He doesn't have the physical stature though to be able to be a player like Jordan or Kobe.
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Curry is a completely different player then Jordan/Kobe, so the comparisons aren't fair.... The same with Lebron. He's so different from Jordan, the comparisons aren't needed.

 
The Dude said:
It's not up for debate. Anyone who thinks it is didn't actually see Jordan play. That's the only reasonable explanation. There's a huge distance between Jordan and whoever you want to argue is the 2nd best of all time.
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You're right but I wouldn't say the gap between Jordan and Kobe is all that massive. I look it more like Jordan was essentially the pure, flawless, perfect basketball player, and Kobe was 80-90% of the ideal realized.

B.B. Hemingway said:
No doubt Jordan is the greatest basketball player we've ever seen. That much, isn't up for debate... BUT I do have a problem with people arguing that Jordan was somehow a better dunker then either LaVine, or Gordon.... The dunks those kids were doing the other night were significantly better then anything Jordan, 'Nique, etc. ever did in competition.... Evolution!
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If Jordan played in today's NBA he'd still be winning dunk contests. He had the physical ability to do any of that stuff (anyone that can jump high enough where they have to tilt their head from hitting the rim does), he just played in an era where the creativity hadn't been as realized as current. Same thing with like action sports - makes it tough to compare when skateboards today are doing stuff that is way way way crazier and more technical than previous generations, only because of nonstop progression in the sport, not because of magical increases in dexterity/physical possibilities.

BigRedBuster said:
I was watching a little NBA the other day and some announcer made some idiotic statement that Steph Curry could be the best ever....I about chocked on my own vomit.
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Why? Steph is an incredible player who's making the rest of the league look like child's play. He has a very long career in front of him but he's already rewriting record books and making some people rethink the way to succeed in today's league. That's nothing to scoff at.

B.B. Hemingway said:
Kobe gets the Jordan comparisons because he is the most "Jordan-like" player we have seen. Plays like him (not quite as good) and has that competitive fire that you rarely see in people. I'll miss watching Kobe play, because I really believe he is the last Alpha dog in the NBA. None of the current elite players have that competitive fire that we have seen from Jordan, and Kobe the past few decades.
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Kobe was basically as close as you could get to a Jordan clone. Copied every element of his game and in some capacities and in some seasons was just as good if not better once in a while (Outscoring the Dallas Mavericks 62-61 by yourself through 3 quarters????). Copied his attitude, his game, his approach, and had almost the exact same body type. I love watching those videos that pop up on social media every so often of side by side clips of Kobe and Jordan doing the same moves. We don't see that kind of attention to detail in most of the league's best anymore.

As far as Lebron, he'd have to go on an unheard of tear over the last few years of his career to be able to hang it up being anywhere close in the conversation of best ever. 2-5 in the Finals is a really bad look, and he's had too many moments of disappearing, missing clutch free throws, questionable decisions or statements, etc. that keep tarnishing his chances at a legendary legacy. Probably the most physically gifted basketball player ever, and shows flashes of things we've never seen before but he still seems so far away. It's insane that I've been watching Kobe Bryant for 20 years, and Lebron has already been in the league for 13.

 
I said that about the comment about Steph because he is no where close to the greatest ever right now.

You're right, he has a long career ahead of him. It will be interesting to see what happens.

However, I highly doubt he will still have the complete game like Jordan had.

 
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