Jordan: How We'd Talk About Him If Social Media Was Around In the Late 90's

[Noyze]

With this addition of more information and much faster communication let's also assume we have analytics as well. These are some of the Threads we'd see on Ish or places like it.

72-10 Has An Asterisk (Expansion Teams)
96 Finals Performance Was One of the Worst By An MVP
Stern Covered Up His Poster Boy's Gambling's Issues (Alot Worst then Advertised. TMZ Has More Info)
Jordan "Republicans Wear Sneakers Too." True Role Model...
Bulls Fortunate Pistons, Lakers & Celtics got old. He Only Had To Face New Up and Coming Teams
Jordan Was Faking The Flu To Make Himself Look Heroic.


People would have used this as ammo to discredit him. So remember when we analyze and dissect every little thing LeBron does. Let's assume LBJ doesn't exists, alot of our free time would be spent on Jordan unlike it was in the 90's.

[jstern]

Considering Jordan's personality, revenge games. How obsessive he was in that sense, we would see a lot more revenge games, with Jordan constantly proving why he's the most competitive guy to ever play any sports.

Remember when Jordan was playing with the Wizards, and writers started going on about how he's not the same Jordan as old? And then Jordan old man Jordan went out the next night and scored 51 points? We would probably see more of that.

Believe it or not, media was 24/7 also back then. It wasn't as immature with your average teenager constantly sharing their immature opinions, but the media never slept. A few weeks ago I heard a teenager type commenting that back in the 90s, it took days for the news of Jordan's come back to circulate around the country. How ****ing ignorant. I understand that there was no Twitter back then, but dumb people who were not alive back then really can't understand what that means. Their imagination just goes into an ignorant level.

[Hey Yo]

Would NIKE still run the slogan "Like Mike, I wanna be like Mike" if the TMZ media existed and would provide pics and cell phone camera footage of MJ gambling at ____ till 4am? Possible woman excursions on video?

Then finding out he punched Kerr and Will Perdue at practice.

MJ would have been raked over the coals by haters on social media. He would be tracked by every step looking for more ammo to sling about his bad characteristics to the world.

[SamuraiSWISH]

He gambled a lot ... Which is legal.

And that's about it.

Being addicted to competition, kind of went with his mentality. Thus why his homicidal competitiveness made him the perfect storm as GOAT basketball player.

No emo high school mirror selfies either.

[TheWinningFam]

He gambled a lot ... Which is legal.

And that's about it.

Being addicted to competition, kind of went with his mentality. Thus why his homicidal competitiveness made him the perfect storm as GOAT basketball player.

No emo high school mirror selfies either.

Nba players aren't allowed to thats the point and he got his father killed over it.

[SamuraiSWISH]

Nba players aren't allowed to thats the point and he got his father killed over it.

NBA players are allowed to gamble. They go to casinos all the time. Cards, personal bets, etc. They can't gamble on their own sport or league, moron. This isn't a Pete Rose situation.

[sdot_thadon]

His image would be a bit less clean than we remember it now. He'd have constant and instant criticism ten times more than what he faced in his era. More of his blunders would be expossd as well and I'm certain the whole shadow over his 1st retirement wouldn't be such a speculative ghost story. That said his top notch pr machine would adjust and project his image as best they can.

[FKAri]

His image would be a bit less clean than we remember it now. He'd have constant and instant criticism ten times more than what he faced in his era. More of his blunders would be expossd as well and I'm certain the whole shadow over his 1st retirement wouldn't be such a speculative ghost story. That said his top notch pr machine would adjust and project his image as best they can.

I don't think his image would've been less clean. I think he would've kept better care of his image in this era. Already in the 90s Jordan was aware enough of globalization to have a very different public persona from his private one.

[TheWinningFam]

NBA players are allowed to gamble. They go to casinos all the time. Cards, personal bets, etc. They can't gamble on their own sport or league, moron. This isn't a Pete Rose situation.

Thats why he had to quit to avoid getting suspended idiot

[Noyze]

Thats why he had to quit to avoid getting suspended idiot

Exactly

I just think we would have got so much more info about what happen there. Jordan probably would have had to answer for it today, as it's been all but confirmed Stern forced him to take a break as a result of the gambling issues.

[AirBonner]

His image would be a bit less clean than we remember it now. He'd have constant and instant criticism ten times more than what he faced in his era. More of his blunders would be expossd as well and I'm certain the whole shadow over his 1st retirement wouldn't be such a speculative ghost story. That said his top notch pr machine would adjust and project his image as best they can.

This. Madonna would of reked him on twitter back then

[Sarcastic]

A lot of the things that you think we didn't know about back then; we knew about it. The 1990s isn't ancient history.

[Goofsta Knicca]

Forever GOAT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0AGiq9j_Ak

[Kblaze8855]

Jordan had haters on the internet 20-30 years ago but less people knew how to access such things so it isn't well known. Here are some old posts on MJ:




Marc Jan 30 1985, 3:47 pm:

Since San Diego basketball fans are now in the dark with respect to
goings-on in the NBA, could someone please tell me how in the world
Jordan is piling up such outrageous stats? All I've seen is box
scores and the occaisional slam-dunk highlight on ESPN, but I don't
even know, for instance, if he's playing point guard, shooting guard,
mostly around the basket, scoring on outside jumpers, or what. From
the few highlights I've seen, it seems he has carte blanche to go
wherever on the court he feels. But what's he got that makes him
special? I don't remember him having a particularly good outside
shot at UNC, and there are plenty of 6'6" players who can jump in
the NBA.








v127nq2e Mar 29 1990, 2:05 pm:

Well folks it looks as if Mr. Jordan is going to win yet
another scoring title. After last nights performance 3/28! WOW
can you believe 69 points, that's his career high! There is hardly
a doubt that he is one of the best the game has known. I know
there are those of you who are going to say that he does all the
work himself because he has no one to back him up-? SORRY
unfortunately these people fail to recognize Scottie pippen as one
of the better forwards in the league,(he was on the all-star team),
and let's not forget Sky king, who just happens to be one of the
best rookies this season. There are others Grant,Cartwright... but
need I get in to them-? I have made my point, and I hope people
will stop calling Chicago a one player team just because they have
one of the greatest players of all time.


---


Gautam Mar 29 1990, 5:20 pm:

Scottie Pippen and John Paxson seem to be the only Bulls'
players who don't look towards Jordan before taking a shot themselves !
It seems to me that Jordan intimidates his teammates more than he
intimidates his opponents. That is prob the biggest difference
between Magic and Jordan ! Why is it that guys like Orlando
Woolridge, James Edwards .. . start playing well when they play
for the Lakers/Pistons/Celts while decent/good prospects rarely pan
out for the Bulls ? [Ed Lor recently posted an excellent article on
this issue]. The Bulls lack a player who can get the
whole team involved in the game.


---

cs225jd Mar 30 1990, 3:40 am:
The Bulls' supporting cast is one of the most underrated 'teams' in the NBA.
You can count the small forwards better than Pippen on one hand.
Everybody thought Hodges was great at the Shootout, but now he's a Bull and
he's not Jordan so he must suck. Paxson's the only person on the FG% leader
board under 6'8" or so - translation, he's making actual shots at 54%.
Medical Bill has one of the best defensive FG% in the league. Stacey King
should take second place for Rookie of the Year behind Hardaway. He's
made All-Star centers look absolutely incompetent.

Now, if the Bulls should (no!) actually WIN the whole thing, these same
experts will talk about how much better the Bulls have become and how
Michael IS a great team player. It would be much more intellectually
honest if they would just shut up now.



Scott May 16 1990, 2:59 pm:

Jesus Christ. Magic finally lost a series despite doing everything
humanly possible, so obviously he's not Jordan's equivalent. Give me
a break! Did all you guys enroll in Mehrdad's School of Faulty
Thinking over the summer or what? Ten years from now you'll be on the
other side of the debate, telling everyone how Michael can't compare
to the latest wonderboy.


----

Russ May 16 1990, 5:51 pm:

You obviously don't get it Scott, why is it Jordan's fault that he has no
rings(ie. he scores too much and hurts his team) but it's not Magics fault t
when the Lakers lose and he does the same thing. When Jordan averages 35
a game you guys(magic fans) say he hurts his team and would help them more
if he played like Magic. When Magic is forced to play the same way and loses
he's the hero not the goat. When Jordan does it it's his fault. For the
first time in his career, Magic wasn't dealt a winning hand prior to a series
and he couldn't win. Jordan has had a subpar hand his whole career but has
bluffed his way to alot of wins by carrying his team. For the first time in
his career Earvin had to compete on even terms and he lost. By the way, 10
years from now Michael will be a bit older than Earvin is now so I don't
think that analogy works..


---


Nor A'Azizam May 17 1990, 3:05 am:
Magic posted Jordan's number in the last two games, but came
up short in both games. But the only reason Magic had to put up more
shots (points) was that his supporting cast was not doing their jobs
in the series. Jordan has had to content with his inferior supporting
cast for a very long time, and it is about time that people find out
that the greats like Magic Johnson is what he is today largely for his
teammates, ie Jabbar, and Worthy. Without the two HoF, Magic is Just
another Gretzky in LA uniform.








Here is one from 1996:


Michael Jordan is not the best player to play game. In fact he was always
an overatted player. The only reason his PPG was so high was he is such
a BALLHOG. He is always taking contested double team shots insted of
passing to open teammates. Sure he hit a couple of great shots to win
series(Cleavland), but if he wasn't such a BALLHOG he wouldn't had to
take the game winning shots. This year just proves my point, his first
game back he takes 30 SHOTS???? Come on, he isn't that good, if anyone
should have been taking 30 shots that game, it should have been Reggie
Miller. He may have won three championships, but the 3 teams the Bulls
beat weren't that great. The Lakers were at the end of their Showtime
era and without Kareem and with Vlade when they were beet by the bulls.
The Portland Trail Blazers were show-stoppers either, the best team they
may have beaten was Phoenix. I would have liked to seen them beat some of
the Celtic, Laker, and Piston teams of the 1980's in finals.

[Elosha]

Up until that time, Jordan faced more media exposure - good and bad - than any other athlete in history. The absolute crush of his fame was overwhelming at times. Certainly today's Twitter generation would mean even more instantaneous, snap judgments - good or bad - which I'm sure Jordan would find annoying but hardly incapacitating.

He would probably be the most dominant, transcendent individual player in any generation, just like he was in the 80's and 90's. Assuming he had a solid team around him, the overall narrative if Jordan played today would likely be how incredible a player he is, and watching his career progress with many MVP's and championships.