During a recent ESPN interview Scottie Pippen said that Michael Jordan “is probably the greatest scorer to play the game” but LeBron James “may be the greatest player to ever play the game.” Um, what the fuck is Pippen smoking? Is he not aware he has SIX Championship rings BECAUSE of Michael Jordan?
Let’s count stats shall we…
Michael Jordan
- 6-time NBA Champion
- 6-time NBA Finals MVP
- 5-time NBA MVP
- 10 NBA Scoring Titles
- I could go on…
LeBron James
- 2-time NBA MVP
- ZERO Championship Rings
Perhaps this video will help you remember. I need not post every epic Jordan moment here however… How quickly they forget:
I’m a huge Jordan fan though. I grew up in the burbs of Chicago during the Bulls six-peat era (in which the 91-92 and 95-96 teams are still in the Top 10 Teams in NBA History) which probably spoiled the game of basketball for me… I’ve never enjoyed watching the game as much as I did back then.
Nobody has controlled their team like Mike did, nobody is as powerful of a threat as Mike was. I watched every game, watched every move he made on the court, studied how he controlled the ball, where his feet went, where his hips led him, how he moved the ball and even his eyes when they zoomed in enough. Jordan WAS the game – nobody can do what Mike did; not LeBron, not Kobe, nobody.
Nuff said – End rant.
The difference is drive. I honestly believe that talent wise Le Bron or Kobe might be equal to Jordan and in some areas superior, but when it comes to desire and drive neither of them are in the same zipcode. Jordan has 6 championship titles because he was willing to do whatever it took to win them. Furthermore, he was the kind of leader that drove those around him to step up their game to help get him there.
Read Jordan’s biography. He was not liked by many of the players because his “standard” was much higher than other super stars in the league. He expected every player to work as hard as he did or he wanted them off the team. This is what made Jordan great. We may never see another talented individual driven to push his peers this hard again.
“How about 6 rings from now? ”
Best statement at the end of the video. Killer video. Got chills. Such a big fan. Definitely lost some respect for Pippen.When I was with my 4 year old on the night of her first ballet recital at Phoenix Symphony Hall, she was looking for a chance to bail out. She was really sick – had the flu bad so I was there backstage with her to keep her separate from the other girls. Heather was one of the volunteers so she was with the other kids. She’d gone to countless practices for months and months and had worked so hard and then I also worried about the mental effect on her long term if she bailed on her first recital/performance (a thing that she was quite scared of at this point). So what did I do? I pulled up my iPhone and we watched clips of Jordan beat the Jazz in game 5 of the 1997 finals when he had that brutal flu. She got the idea to some point and went on and had a great performance. To this day, she still brings that up whenever anybody in the family needs to overcome adversity. Just brought it up to me on our vacation when she decided to carry a very heavy bag to the car. She started struggling and it was definitely painful but she wouldn’t let us take it from her. Good parenting, I say. :)
As Derek said, desire & drive. Just will… Didn’t see any of that from LeBron in the 4th quarter of this last series. And I’m not saying that so much as an indictment of LeBron.
Jordan just had it all. The brain, the heart, the talent. Doesn’t happen very often.
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