Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

[CaseIH]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

Jordan's early years mostly featured him dribbling, faking, and re-faking on the wing in a one on one situation. He still had to learn the total game and Phil Jackson's triangle attack helped him do that. The overall quality of play was a cut above what we see today as well.

LeBron has had better teammates than you would be led to believe. Zydrunas Illgauskas was a top notch center, an All-Star. Shaq still was a championship caliber center and Anthony Parker was a two-way wing man. Mo Williams was an explosive pull-up scorer.
Kyrie Irving is an expert one on one scorer. Tristan Thompson is a serious board-man.

I sometimes wonder just how many here actually seen MJ 1st few years in the league. Before Phil and Tex, it was all MJ, he didnt trust teammates, almost identical to the ballhogging we seen thru a lot of Kobe' career. Once MJ started to trust others around him, he not only still dominated in scoring, but started having success in the playoffs.

As someone else here stated, some have made MJ out to be this basketball God who just never failed or had bad games,lol. I think that same person also stated he is probably even bigger now than he was in his playing days. I tend to agree. Thats not to take anything away from MJ, he is still the GOAT imo, but its not impossible to think that someone could come along and take his place at some point. Dont think we have anyone in the league now that will ultimately do it, but Lebron is in the discussion now, with the greats, like MJ,Bird Magic,etc, I could name more thats in the discussion, but those are my 3 favorite greats that I saw all of their careers. Actually saw Bird and Magic in college, and if it werent for them, the NBA might not have been where it was to where MJ was able to take it to the popularity level to whats its become. You can argue whos on the GOAT list, but their is no arguement for the 3 most influential players in history that made the game what its become, starting with Bird/Magic,and MJ took it from there on to the level its at. NBA was struggling majorly until Bird/Magic came onto the seen, so who knows if it werent for them, we might not have the great game we have today. I think we would still have the league, but it might not have seen the heights its seen without them.

[AlexBrady]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

Oh, I would call Bill Russell the most influential player in the game's history. He took the NBA from the slo-mo pre shot clock era and turned it into an up-tempo speed game, much like today. Russell proved that defense wins championships and spawned other quick running centers like Nate Thurmond, Hakeem Olajuwon, Caldwell Jones, David Robinson, and DeAndre Jordan.

[CaseIH]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

Oh, I would call Bill Russell the most influential player in the game's history. He took the NBA from the slo-mo pre shot clock era and turned it into an up-tempo speed game, much like today. Russell proved that defense wins championships and spawned other quick running centers like Nate Thurmond, Hakeem Olajuwon, Caldwell Jones, David Robinson, and DeAndre Jordan.

NBA was in bad shape before Bird/Magic. I sure several here dont know that, because of being too young. Not to take away anything from Russell, Russell's influenced the game no doubt, and the biggest was the rights of Blacks. Then again if it werent for Red Auerbach giving him that chance, he might not have did what he did, thankfully Red didnt see color, he saw all of Gods children the same.

Every era has their influential players, and me stating Bird/Magic was not to diminish any other contributions, just pointing out that the NBA was in dire straights and if it werent for Magic/Bird, the NBA might not have been where it was for MJ to take it to another level that we know today. Its been well documented where the league was at right before Magic/Bird, to the point of not knowing if the NBA would be able to continue on. Seems they might have even made a documentary movie on it, but I might me mistaken on that, for anyone who wanted to know more on the history of the pro game.

[AlexBrady]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

Well, Sweetwater Clifton, Chuck Cooper, and Earl Llyod broke the color line. When Bird and Magic came into the NBA it really boosted the media machine. The NBA bigwigs made the game about the players, whereas before it was all about the teams.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

To answer the OP directly, I actually believe Jordan's name is MUCH bigger now than it ever was as a player. MJ isn't even remembered for the player he was.

He's a tall tale that keeps growing, he's incomparable, an untouchable legend who at this point has grown so large that the representation of him is more of a myth than an athlete. Even if a player "passes" him or is considered better than him, even just at his level, the world will never allow them to be equal/better than something that's already labeled as the GOAT. He's the Muhammad Ali of basketball, the Babe Ruth, the Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, but actually perceived as larger than all of them even combined.

At the time of his retirement it wasn't that way. Sure he was considered by many the best player to ever play the game. But if someone said "Magic was better", "Big O was better", "Bill was better", etc. the opinion/argument was allowed to be had. Now it's not. But by all means compare modern greats to any other former player you want to, just don't dare put their name and MJ's in the same sentence.

Find a LeBron highlight real, what's the first comment "he's not Jordan", same for Kobe, Magic, Bird, Dr J, whoever. People won't even let a great player be a great player because somehow Jordan has to be on his own stage somewhere, he's the only great everyone else can just be really good.

It's to the point that basketball is now the only sport where athletes have regressed rather than progressed forward. Which goes against all common logic and nature of men, sports, technology, machines, everything. 30 years ago Jordan was better than Big O because "players and the game have developed" 30 years later and no we are going backwards somehow.

Arguments made against other players greatness are reversed to favor MJ, players weaknesses are implied to them but ignored or voided for MJ, he's got his own set of standards.

Like I said, it wasn't always like that. It wasn't that way when he retired. It wasn't that way when he was playing. He's become the folk lore of professional athletes. There was a time when I could say Jordan was my idol, my favorite athlete, celebrity, role model, ever. People and media are slowly ruining that for me now.


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How ya'll gonna let this slide tho?

[ojandpizza]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

Well said. I especially agree with the part in bold. It's the reason I've always tried to be so critical of LeBron. I didn't see why he deserved so much praise before he did anything at all in the NBA.

Why does it matter if he's lived up to
It, arguably surpassed it?


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[ojandpizza]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

How ya'll gonna let this slide tho?

Because it's true, MJ wasn't looked at during his playing time or immediately following his retirement the same way he is now. It's like he's somehow still playing in some parallel universe adding to his resumé.


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[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

Lmao yes he was, stop being naive.

The only difference is that he didn't have social media to gas up every little thing or ESPN coming up with silly *** statistics like they have with players now, especially your boy Lebron(First player in NBA to score 5,000 points on a Tuesday while playing on the road after playing a home game the night before, BTW).

That's the only reason why he wasn't gassed up more than he was at the time, which was rightfully earned BTW.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

I saw this thread when it started and stayed away for obvious reasons. Been reading through the last few pages here and I see I didn't make a mistake in that decision. Good lord....

[ojandpizza]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

Lmao yes he was, stop being naive.

The only difference is that he didn't have social media to gas up every little thing or ESPN coming up with silly *** statistics like they have with players now, especially your boy Lebron(First player in NBA to score 5,000 points on a Tuesday while playing on the road after playing a home game the night before, BTW).

That's the only reason why he wasn't gassed up more than he was at the time, which was rightfully earned BTW.

Well obviously it was rightfully earned. Social media makes everything worse, the over exaggerated everything from ESPN, the dumb fans that "Kobe scored 81 so he's GOAT", stuff like that which we now see daily and have access to makes everything worse from that perspective in this generation.

I just meant in terms of how Jordan was viewed. Not just media and social media bull****. He was gassed up plenty, but he wasn't on his own pedestal where you couldn't even mention his name along the lines of other players. He was recognized by many as likely the greatest to lace them up, which he's deserving of.

He wasn't untouchable though, he was just another great player who was perhaps better than the other great players. Now he's untouchable, I'm not sure another player will ever even be "allowed" to reach his tier, regardless of how great they are. Everyone that's came after, and even some of them before, seem to be degraded based on a special MJ curve.

I'm not hating on it, I'm not saying he isn't deserving of that. I'm just responding to the OP. I think his name now is bigger than what it was when he was actually playing.



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[Scofield]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

Well obviously it was rightfully earned. Social media makes everything worse, the over exaggerated everything from ESPN, the dumb fans that "Kobe scored 81 so he's GOAT", stuff like that which we now see daily and have access to makes everything worse from that perspective in this generation.

I just meant in terms of how Jordan was viewed. Not just media and social media bull****. He was gassed up plenty, but he wasn't on his own pedestal where you couldn't even mention his name along the lines of other players. He was recognized by many as likely the greatest to lace them up, which he's deserving of.

He wasn't untouchable though, he was just another great player who was perhaps better than the other great players. Now he's untouchable, I'm not sure another player will ever even be "allowed" to reach his tier, regardless of how great they are. Everyone that's came after, and even some of them before, seem to be degraded based on a special MJ curve.

I'm not hating on it, I'm not saying he isn't deserving of that. I'm just responding to the OP. I think his name now is bigger than what it was when he was actually playing.



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When Jordan stepped off the court after that shot in '98 he was untouchable. The aggressive and vocal defense of his legacy didn't come until much later because for a while there weren't any serious reasons to do so. But when Kobe started blazing his own path post-Shaq (and a few years before) I think you could argue things were worse than they've been for LeBron. If only because his game made it so easy to compare the two.

Social media means it's much easier to hear what everybody's saying. But if you were on basketball message boards or forums ect 10-15 years or so ago you saw and heard alot of what's on the table now.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

In 1999, ESPN ranked him as the greatest athlete of the 20th century, AP had him second behind Babe Ruth. Larry Bird called him God in his 2nd year.

That's about as untouchable as it gets. I consider Babe Ruth essentially a god and hold Jordan on that same level. I think time has made both of their legends grow to crazy levels but I also don't think either are more popular now than in their heyday. They were the most popular people in the country at their peak. His name just seems bigger because you can hear more people talking with the internet.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

He was gassed up plenty, but he wasn't on his own pedestal where you couldn't even mention his name along the lines of other players.

At the time, he was though.

I'm not sure another player will ever even be "allowed" to reach his tier, regardless of how great they are. Everyone that's came after, and even some of them before, seem to be degraded based on a special MJ curve.

Lol "special MJ curve".

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

In 1999, ESPN ranked him as the greatest athlete of the 20th century, AP had him second behind Babe Ruth. Larry Bird called him God in his 2nd year.

That's about as untouchable as it gets. I consider Babe Ruth essentially a god and hold Jordan on that same level. I think time has made both of their legends grow to crazy levels but I also don't think either are more popular now than in their heyday. They were the most popular people in the country at their peak. His name just seems bigger because you can hear more people talking with the internet.

Planet. During the absolute height of his playing career Michael Jordan was one of if not the most popular person on planet Earth. Part of the spectacle of the Dream Team was Jordan being on that team. The 95-96 Chicago Bulls were a touring rock group largely because of Michael Jordan's star.

[wwharton]

Re: Does Michael Jordan's name have the same impact as before?

How ya'll gonna let this slide tho?

Tired...


OJ, you're showing your age.