Has Jordan become overrated?

[dc_chilling]

Yeah people should look at the brick wall Kobe and LeBron have run into and actually realize that winning three titles in a row and having 5/6 incredible NBA Finals and one that was just "pretty good" is actually fairly f*cking incredible.

27.3/5.3 apg/4.7 rpg/1.7 spg is what qualifies as a "horrible" NBA Finals for Michael Jordan.

Anyone who watched those finals recognizes how inefficient Jordan was to get those points. GP was putting in work on Jordan.

Jordan still got his though, but it wasn't pretty.

[Marchesk]

Magic had a pretty mythical career right from the get go. It just ended early.

[dc_chilling]

I'm guessing you read this article from Sports Illustrated?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba...#ixzz34Svqkzff

Very good article btw

I actually did. It was a good article.

I have thought this for a while, but I thought it would be a good topic to bring up on the board. I expected some serious heat from the Jordan stans though.

[Legends66NBA7]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba...#ixzz34YeepLIl

But I suspect he'll be sheer hell for the Spurs on Thursday night.

Yeah... a little too late when he decided go off.

[Legends66NBA7]

Magic had a pretty mythical career right from the get go. It just ended early.

If anything, I don't see how he doesn't get the absurd hatred even more so than guys like Duncan, Bryant, Shaq, and James do. Those 4 get blamed for all the talent around them and Magic basically had loaded lineups his whole career too.

[Hey Yo]

I actually did. It was a good article.

I have thought this for a while, but I thought it would be a good topic to bring up on the board. I expected some serious heat from the Jordan stans though.

Definitely be a good topic. When Jordan quit and walked away, according to MJ stans he was tired of dominating.

If LeBron quit this year and decided to play baseball, he would be crucified and called a mental midget.

[fpliii]

Anyone who watched those finals recognizes how inefficient Jordan was to get those points. GP was putting in work on Jordan.

Jordan still got his though, but it wasn't pretty.

If we are being honest, GP was the only legitimate defender Jordan faced in the finals. MJ feasted on the likes of Ainge, Marjerle, Hornacek, and Russell.

It's not just the Finals though. Regardless of era, you're playing two legitimate series. Your conference finals (best team in your conference) and the NBA Finals (best team in the other conference). Dumars was legit, and so was Rodman (who guarded MJ a good deal).

In general though, great players don't face individual defenders. Even though zones weren't the same, MJ still went up against elite team defenses. Detroit, the Knicks, even the Cavs and the Dunleavy Lakers to some extent, all looked to take away the drive. Look at this series...LeBron's not getting single covered, the Spurs are loading up the strong side to take him out of the game. Teams did the same thing to Shaq too, and resorted to bush league fouling tactics (same shit Wilt faced back in the day by all accounts).

[fpliii]

If anything, I don't see how he doesn't get the absurd hatred even more so than guys like Duncan, Bryant, Shaq, and James do. Those 3 gets blamed for all the talent around them and Magic basically had loaded lineups his whole career too.

Plus he played in the 80s West, which was an abortion of a conference.

He's less polarizing, though, and he won right away (and was big in the closeout game), so the narrative certainly was in his favor.

[Hey Yo]

If anything, I don't see how he doesn't get the absurd hatred even more so than guys like Duncan, Bryant, Shaq, and James do. Those 3 gets blamed for all the talent around them and Magic basically had loaded lineups his whole career too.

Magic's comment about if Chicago would have won the coin flip and received the first overall pick:

I would have never played for the Bulls. I wanted to play with Kareem

[Soundwave]

The other thing I appreciate about MJ is just the overall lack of b*tchmade-ness

Kobe cries every time he doesn't have a loaded team (yet doesn't take a pay cut) and drove Shaq out of town. Shaq is turn was an immature doofus. LeBron has his mental midget moments and the whole "it's gonna be easy" nonsense when going to Miami.

DRose sits out if he has a papercut, the Bulls couldn't keep Jordan off the court in 86.

Even Magic had a lot of bullsh*t in his career ... he refused to be drafted by the Bulls (yet Jordan made no fuss), got a coach fired, etc. When the Bulls were getting whupped by the Pistons, Jordan shook their hands every year. When they lost to Orlando in '95 he made no big fuss about it and just went back to work in the gym.

Bird I think was the same. Just no-nonsense ... I wanna be the best player possible, I want the ball in big situations, etc. Duncan is like that too. I respect guys like that.

[Psileas]

It's one thing to have someone as the GOAT and another to pretend that it's not even arguable and almost get insulted if someone mentions another name, which lots of mainstream and casual fans do. It's possible to be the GOAT (or close to it) and still be overrated.

You can't call someone the GOAT "by far"/"easily" and then offer excuses like "but, but he didn't have great teammates" when facing facts like that, without great rosters in the 80's, his teams never really overachieved, let alone failing to win titles. What kind of "easily GOAT" needs such excuses?

[Soundwave]

Anyone who watched those finals recognizes how inefficient Jordan was to get those points. GP was putting in work on Jordan.

Jordan still got his though, but it wasn't pretty.

That was a horrific Finals by his ridiculous standards, but if you want to see "not pretty" go watch some of Kobe or LeBron's low points in the Finals and come back to me.

The '96 Finals were basically over before they started anyway, the Bulls got up 3-0 and the rest of the series was basically just Seattle trying to save face.

[SamuraiSWISH]

The '96 Finals were basically over before they started anyway, the Bulls got up 3-0 and the rest of the series was basically just Seattle trying to save face.

Precisely. MJ killed it in game 3 in Seattle too. Then his abysmal shooting games came when the series had pretty much been won. And Seattle was just buying time to make an attempt to keep the series competitive. MJ's worst Finals is way better than the worst we've seen from Kobe, LeBron, Magic, and Bird.

Magic's comment about if Chicago would have won the coin flip and received the first overall pick:

I would have never played for the Bulls. I wanted to play with Kareem

That's cause Magic is a puss. Kind of like LeBron. Lack of true competitiveness. The need to stack the deck.

[Rose'sACL]

The other thing I appreciate about MJ is just the overall lack of b*tchmade-ness

Kobe cries every time he doesn't have a loaded team (yet doesn't take a pay cut) and drove Shaq out of town. Shaq is turn was an immature doofus. LeBron has his mental midget moments and the whole "it's gonna be easy" nonsense when going to Miami.

DRose sits out if he has a papercut, the Bulls couldn't keep Jordan off the court in 86.

Even Magic had a lot of bullsh*t in his career ... he refused to be drafted by the Bulls (yet Jordan made no fuss), got a coach fired, etc. When the Bulls were getting whupped by the Pistons, Jordan shook their hands every year. When they lost to Orlando in '95 he made no big fuss about it and just went back to work in the gym.

Bird I think was the same. Just no-nonsense ... I wanna be the best player possible, I want the ball in big situations, etc. Duncan is like that too. I respect guys like that.

This is why bird is my favorite player of all time. i like lebron's play on the court but i don't like him off the court even though i don't hate him for it but he should have just accepted the villain image instead of trying to improve his image by giving cliched answers. I think if lebron accepted the role of villain, he would be a better player.
If by some probability bird played in this era and left a team with bad front office, he would just tell media to fck off if they asked about pressure of playing with all the hate against him. He would just not talk about it at all which is what lebron should have done but he does talk about it when he can just say "no" to those questions like Pop does.

[dc_chilling]

It's one thing to have someone as the GOAT and another to pretend that it's not even arguable and almost get insulted if someone mentions another name, which lots of mainstream and casual fans do. It's possible to be the GOAT (or close to it) and still be overrated.

You can't call someone the GOAT "by far"/"easily" and then offer excuses like "but, but he didn't have great teammates" when facing facts like that, without great rosters in the 80's, his teams never really overachieved, let alone failing to win titles. What kind of "easily GOAT" needs such excuses?

Exactly. Couldn't have said it better myself.