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Let me get this out the way right now.
MJ > Kobe
MJ is the GOAT.
Michael Jordan: ‘The best there ever was.’
By Jim Litke
Most people go into the Hall of Fame first.
Then they get the statue.
Not Michael Jordan.
Even as he stood in the ballroom of a downtown Detroit hotel Monday for the announcement of his election to the Hall class of 2009, the same snowstorm that swirled outside blanketed a statue erected almost 15 years ago in front of the United Center in Chicago—The House That Jordan Built—a few hundred miles to the south.
The figure cast in bronze atop a granite base soars toward the sky, a basketball at the end of its outstretched arm. The pose captures almost perfectly the illusion of Jordan: that he could fly. But down near the bottom, where the statue is affixed to the earth, is an inscription that captures the reality: “The best there ever was. The best there ever will be.”
What made Jordan that, and more, was not the string of NBA scoring les, regular-season and finals MVP awards, not even all the championships he won. A few members of the exclusive club he will formally join upon induction into the Hall come September boast accomplishments just as outsized.
No, the real wonder of Jordan is that he always kept score. Not just in his head, not just on a basketball court, and not just some nights, but every minute of every day.
In his front yard, against an older brother on a makeshift court of caked dirt … at North Carolina, where he banked in a last- second jump shot to win an NCAA championship … in Barcelona, Spain, where he led the Dream Team to a second Olympic gold medal … on the team bus playing, gambling in casinos, even wagering with teammates whose suitcase would come down the baggage carousel at the airport first … in corporate boardrooms, where he helped sell more of everything—hot dogs and hamburgers, Wheaties, sunglasses, calling cards, underwear and the Internet … in Salt Lake City, where one last heart-stopping jumper swished through the net, securing his sixth le and sucking every last bit of air out of the state of Utah … even when he came out of retirement the second time in Washington, age having diminished everything but his desire.
He is keeping score still.
“This is not fun for me,” Jordan said during a brief news conference. “I don’t like being up here for the Hall of Fame, because at that time, your basketball career is completely over. That’s the way I look at it. I was hoping this day was coming in 20 more years, or that I’d actually go in when I’m dead and done.
“Because the way you always look at it,”—or at the least way Jordan did — “you can always go and put on shorts on and play. Now you get into the Hall of Fame, what else is there to do?
“Look,” Jordan continued. “It’s a great accomplishment, it’s great the respect everyone is paying. But for me, I always want to have you thinking that I can always go back and play the game of basketball. As long as you have that thought you never know what can happen. You never know what my abilities can do.
“Am I?” Jordan paused.
“No,” he quickly added. “But I’d like for you to think that way.”
His father, the late James Jordan, once said that obsession was what marked his son as special, even as a child. From the moment he started playing games, Michael had to win, and just as important, there had to be something riding on the outcome.
“He doesn’t have a gambling problem,” James Jordan said.
“What he does have is a compe ion problem. He was born with that. And if he didn’t have a compe ion problem,” his father added, “you guys wouldn’t be writing about him. The person he tries to outdo most of the time is himself.”
Once, Jordan traveled everywhere and anywhere to feed that compe ive jones, a modern-day Ulysses roaming the world in sneakers and baggy shorts, Atlas holding up a globe with seams stretched across it. But Jordan knows his day has passed and that desire is not like a gene that can be passed from one generation to the next, no matter how hard he tries.
He recounted how after his younger son’s basketball team won an Illinois state high school championship last month, “My kid comes back to me and says, ‘Dad, I did something that you never did. You never won a state championship.’
“And my reply to him,” Jordan said, “is that everybody that won a state championship didn’t always win after that.”
The room cracked up, but Jordan barely cracked a smile. His eyes were red and focused on something in the distance.
And it was in that moment, after chronicling nearly everything Jordan has done from the day he first turned up at practice 25 years ago in Chicago that I was reminded for better or worse, that whether it was a sublime gift or the cruelest sort of curse, he is still restless in a way the rest of us will never be.
Let me get this out the way right now.
MJ > Kobe
MJ is the GOAT.
For now but when it's all said and done, Kobe will be the GOAT!
lol rockets
Don't even start..
BTW Magic>>>Kobe
I have a lot of respect for you..but you're way off on this one. Kobe will never be Mike. Jordan has 6 les. He won rings with much less talent than Kobe, back before guards were given an easier time. With all the rule changes, guards have it EASY now, and get away with a lot more. Back then, all the rules focused on helping the big man, and the guard was not given any love at all. Jordan in his prime is twice Kobe in his prime...and then some.
Don't even start..
BTW Magic>>>KobeKobe couldn't play Center even if he wanted to.
I think we should have a Jordan > Kobe thread. I don't think there's been one before
LMAO.
Nice comeback, ass face.
Jordan is lucky Ainge didn't kick his ass.
http://bossip.com/906/cheating-micha...th-the-ladies/
Call me a hater if you want, but Jordan was, and and always will be, a puke.
(yes, I'm still bitter about the push off on Bryon Russel. Blow me.)
What does GOAT mean?
Greatest Of All Time.
No I mean in Kobes' case?
In Kobe's case?
For Fan
wtf??? hahahaha
wtf??? hahahaha
In Kobe's case?
According to Rockfan: Clyde = Jordan > Kobe
Jordan is lucky Ainge didn't kick his ass.
Clyde = Kobe
Respect!
I don't know where this Jordan won with less talent came from. Jordan had plenty of talent around him. Phil Jackson built those teams around MJ, a very nice group of talented role players. Jordan leads on les and I believe it will take Kobe a couple of les to make that a wash. The rule changes has its pros and cons both ways. Can you imagine what kobe would have done if he faced one on one defenders nightly? What about an Iso for Kobe with the rest of the players off to the side? Kobe would have had a field day.
They have both done things that the other has not achieved. Just like Kobe never won a le without Shaq, MJ never won a le without Pippen or Jackson. I think it's ridiculous to penalize Kobe for having Shaq as a team mate. Kobe did the same things now that he did when Shaq was a Lakers. When the game is on the line, the Lakers put the ball in Kobe's hands, not shaq's. Much like what is going on now with the Lakers. The Lakers never looked to Shaq in a situation like that. Why? Because Kobe was clutch and you could depend on him to make the plays. Whether thats scoring or setting a team mate up for a good look, the ball was in Kobe's hands.
The Finals MVP's are misleading as well. During the Lakers 3 peat the eastern conference had no answer for Shaq. It was just force feed Shaq in the finals. No one could even come close to stopping him but If they gave MVP's for the Western Conference Playoffs, Kobe would have 3 MVP's. The Lakers don't make it to the finals without Kobe Jellybean Bryant.
That said, MJ is the GOAT but if Kobe wins a couple of more les he will be considered the GOAT and well deserved.
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