A message to ISH : As a life-long Michael Jordan fan, i'm finally ready to admit

[Mr Feeny]

I don't have him as the greatest anymore.

This following will sound like blasphemy and I realize that only a tiny minority would agree with my point but that's the beauty of sports; we're all allowed to have our own opinion.

I grew up watching Jordan but only got to really watch every game from 92 onwards. Jordan has always been my idol. Maybe always will be.

We all grow up with sports heros but as we grow older, we realize that our images of those heros might have been slightly exaggerated. That they weren't AS dominant as we remember them being upon watching them with star-struck eyes as children. Not so with Jordan.

He made the sport look like a joke and made his competition look like amateurs. We often get nervous in big moments and big games in sports. I never was. Not when my team had Jordan around. Success felt inevitable.

My favourite basketball moment and my most cherished memory was the game 6 against Utah. I watched that game - which my dad recorded on VHS for me - more times than I've watched any sporting event of any movie.

Watching Jordan win the title by scoring, stealing the ball from Malone and scoring the title winning jumper felt like a dream. Surreal.

I continued watching basketball and fell in love with young Wade and young Lebron but they weren't quite Jordan. And I never thought I'd see anyone as good. In my mind, Jordan was a god. There was him, and then there were the rest

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I watched Lebron dominate the NBA without really having the luck/teammates/clutch play to finish the job and win the titles he needed to ascend the all time rankings. Then the Miami stint came and it looked like it was a formality until Wade got hurt bad and was never the same.

During the 2014 finals, I wondered if Lebron would ever win it again. I wondered if 2011 would haunt him. I think he himself knows that he's a big part to blame and gave away a chance to win what would have been his 3rd finals mvp at the time and avoid a demerit on his legacy. The heat were crushed. It was so one sided and I couldn't see Lebron winning enough to challenge Jordan.

2015: The 2015 finals came along and Lebron put on one of the most majestic performances every, averaging 36, 13, 9 but coming up short as he lost Kyrie and Love to injury. That was another one of those moments where you wondered if it would ever happened.

2016 is where everything changed for me.

There were some guys such as Lebron23 and I believe ArbitraryWater who are long-time Lebron fans and were convinced and confident in their favourite player's ability to make history.
I remember both of those (in addition to a few other long time Lebron fans) making threads boasting about Lebron's impending success. I admired their confidence but shook my head, incredulous at what I thought could only be described as insanity.

I truly believed that Lebron's destiny was to end up as possibly the most dominant player statistically but that he would fail to win any more than the 2 in Miami. It was one wave of bad luck after the other. Wade going down injured or playing abysmal. Kyrie and Love going down. It seemed like he was cursed.

I kept thinking that Lebron's legacy would be polarizing for that reason. Those who focused on individual impact could point to his dominance while critics would counter with questions about his lack of titles.

Lebron had become the NBA's all time leading player in regular season and playoff win shares and vorp. THAT, I thought, was the kind of thing he needed. He needed to accumulate stats and make a strong claim based on impact.

I was resigned to the fact that the Warriors would win the next 4 or 5 titles. Curry was a likable player and I have no problem and had no problem saying I wished him well. If Lebron wasn't destined to win it, I wanted Curry to (part of me also wanted Curry to rack them up to drop Kobe down the all time rankings).

Then the Cavaliers found themselves in a 3-1 hole
I posted that if Lebron were to somehow dig them out of it, i'd consider him the greatest player of all time:

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...1&postcount=29

I tweeted the same thing on my private twitter account and said the same to my friends - all of whom blasted me and laughed.

Maybe I should have laughed too. The reason I wrote that was not because I was convinced that he was going to do it, but because I truly believed it was beyond anyone's reach. Not even Michael Jordan could have done that and if Lebron were to accomplish it, then (even though he'd be lacking hardware) I'd have no problem declaring him a better all time player than my childhood idol.

Nilicon bumped that thread a few days ago and I found myself hesitant to do it. The child in you doesn't want to admit that it's over. That your hero has probably been surpassed. It takes a while to overcome the cognitive disequilibrium.

And I'm there now. As I type these words, I'm struggling not to click on the backspace button and erase any mention of Lebron being greater than Michael. But that's that.

SportsJame23 and swish and pmorteus have all openly accepted Lebron's position in the upper echelon. I already had him there. This has changed the opinion I've had for 22-23 years or so.

I'm ready to admit that Lebron is better than Jordan was. I recognize the general consensus is that Lebron is 2 spots below where I have him. I'm fine with that.

Most people would call what I've written insane. But insane is exactly what Lebron's performance a couple of months ago was.
If anyone were to tell you before the finals that Lebron would have lead the only comeback from 3-1 in Nba finals history while averaging 36, 12, 10, 3, 3 on 50% en route, against a 73 win team and posting 2 of the 3 greatest singular finals games back to back to force a game 7, you would have called them insane.

I feel like a tiny part of my childhood just died, but i'm ready to admit that childhood idol has been surpassed.

[bond10]

nice try Lebron23

[BigKAT]

[BIG FURB]

Uhhhhh no. Lebron's a strong 4th, maybe even 3rd best though, so kudos to him for that

[Dray n Klay]

FEENY has spoken




I was skeptical at first. I only had LeBron at 3, but after reading your wonderfully written essay, I'm convinced.




LeBron is the GOAT

[Chokefree]

Are you ok? Lebronze just won the chip....why soo insecure?

[Dray n Klay]

BTW feeny I have to congratulate you for your courageous post



It must not have been easy shunning your childhood idol in favor of LeBron, but I'm happy you saw the light

[Mr Feeny]

BTW feeny I have to congratulate you for your courageous post



It must not have been easy shunning your childhood idol in favor of LeBron, but I'm happy you saw the light

Cheer

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

I wouldnt go as far to agree with OP, but Lebron definitely changed my stance on his place in history. In another thread, 3ball and a few other posters used rings and other team accolades to differentiate the two...but the fact is when we discuss impact and overall skills, Bron's in that tier. No question.

[I know you are]

Yep, the usual suspects.

[Sarcastic]

OP is taking bath salts again.

[Spurs m8]

These essays are cute and meaningless

[fourkicks44]

Feeny, I think it is time you finally left now.

You had an amnesty period, now go.

[Trollsmasher]

OP is a very courageous person

[MiseryCityTexas]

Lebron couldn't even drive to the basket at will and was on the verge of losing the NBA Finals when Bogut was healthy.That's why KD's Warriors cha,[ionship is not etched in stone. Zaza Pachulia is a beast on the board, but is weak at post defense compared to Bogut. Lebron is still capable of dominating inside against the Warriors.