Is MJ Hating?

[eliteballer]

And with Michael Jordan turning 50, there's a surge of media around him. After saying in an interview that he'd take Kobe over LeBron (Note: the excerpt excluded the fact that Jordan said "in terms of championships" but whatever), Jordan said in an interview with ESPN the Magazine that he takes umbrage with the idea that modern players could play in the '90s.

Citing tougher competition and different rules, Jordan lists four players who could play in his era and questions even the mighty LeBron.

JORDAN PLAYS his new favorite trivia game, asking which current players could be nearly as successful in his era. "Our era," he says over and over again, calling modern players soft, coddled and ill-prepared for the highest level of the game. This is personal to him, since he'll be compared to this generation, and since he has to build a franchise with this generation's players.

"I'll give you a hint," he says. "I can only come up with four."

He lists them: LeBron, Kobe, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki.

When someone on TV compares LeBron to Oscar Robertson, Jordan fumes. He rolls his eyes, stretches his neck, frustrated. "It's absolutely … " he says, catching himself. "The point is, no one is critiquing the personnel that he's playing against. Their knowledge of how to play the game … that's not a fair comparison. That's not right … Could LeBron be successful in our era? Yes. Would he be as successful? No."

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-...ful-in-his-era

Funny and ironic thing is Oscar and others in his era(IE Wilt) said the same stuff about Jordan's generation...

[G0ATbe]

He's wrong about LeBron not being as successful. All he'd have to do is join the Bulls, and I'm 100% sure he would've done so back then.

[Kblaze8855]

From reading his books Wilt was fairly impressed with the 80s players. He had Barkley and Bird on his all time starting lineup and that was in like 1990.

But to your point....Jordan was his 6th man.

[eliteballer]

From reading his books Wilt was fairly impressed with the 80s players. He had Barkley and Bird on his all time starting lineup and that was in like 1990.

But to your point....Jordan was his 6th man.

Theres some interviews with Wilt on youtube where he does give props but at the same time where he plays them down. He says bigmen were better in his era and then he says "nowadays they're all jumping jacks but they don't have the skill and fundamentals"

Theres also a part where he says he'd be averaging more in the 80's than he did in the 60's(like 70 ppg or something) and how he could average 40 a game RIGHT THEN(in his late 50's I believe)

[JimmyMcAdocious]

[Kblaze8855]

I believe you are thinking of his 96 or so interview with Russell and Ahmad Rashad. Or maybe his NBA at 50 interviews which he was always pissed about. He said he gave them 3 hours and answered everything they asked...gave a lot of people props...and watched it and saw they cut to down 3 hours of praise into 20 seconds of out of context bragging.

[SamuraiSWISH]

He probably means he'd like to defend him. LeBron doesn't react well to physicality, even being such a beast. Just because one is built doesn't mean they can actually take punishment. That comes from internal strength, which is ultimately what I think Jordan is talking about.

[B-hoop]

From reading his books Wilt was fairly impressed with the 80s players. He had Barkley and Bird on his all time starting lineup and that was in like 1990.

But to your point....Jordan was his 6th man.

Wilt so salty that people were saying Jordan was Goat.

[Da KO King]

Every old player thinks his competition and "era" was better than it really was.

[JohnFreeman]

Every old player thinks his competition and "era" was better than it really was.

this

[andgar923]

Every old player thinks his competition and "era" was better than it really was.

Except there's players that played in a number of eras.

Players such as GP, Horry, Harper, Shaq, Miller, etc.etc. played in multiple eras. Oh... and even Kobe has stated that today's era is weak and soft.

MJ played in today's era as well (well.. early 2k)

[PJR]

Every old player thinks his competition and "era" was better than it really was.

This. Old geezers love to wax poetic. MJ is no diffrent.

[Micku]

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-...ful-in-his-era

Funny and ironic thing is Oscar and others in his era(IE Wilt) said the same stuff about Jordan's generation...

Yup. LeBron, D-Wade and others will probably say the same thing about the next era.

Some have merit, some is nostalgia imo.

You still have players like Kobe that played in multiple eras who will say that this era is a bit soft, right? Shaq and Barkley tends to diss today's big men. Not as much as they used to, but they still diss them once in a while. Wilt didn't like that Shaq keeps fouling everybody to get his points. I think he said that he wouldn't do that in his era. He thought that Gheorghe Muresan had more talent than Shaq.

Doc Rivers once said that Rondo wouldn't be as good if he played in his era too.

In the 91 playoffs, I think someone said that MJ wouldn't be as effective in the 70s cuz the type of defense they could play on them. They thought the NBA went soft on the perimeter players in the 80s and early 90s. They claim that you can't play defense on MJ and you can't put your hands on him. Fast forward to now, the 90s players think that the league is too soft on the perimeter players now. You can't play put your hands on star players anymore.

See the trend?

[Blue&Orange]

In the 91 playoffs, I think someone said that MJ wouldn't be as effective in the 70s cuz the type of defense they could play on them. They thought the NBA went soft on the perimeter players in the 80s and early 90s. They claim that you can't play defense on MJ and you can't put your hands on him. Fast forward to now, the 90s players think that the league is too soft on the perimeter players now. You can't play put your hands on star players anymore.

See the trend?

Yes the NBA got softer each decade and became the NBE.

I was doing some research on the greatest defenses over the course of a season and I ran a search on Basketball-Reference for teams with a defensive rating lower than 95. The search returned eleven results, presumably the eleven best defenses ever by this metric. Of the eleven teams, two were Pop/Duncan-era Spurs teams, including the '99 championship team, and the other nine came from the mid-1970s.
Here is a link to the results.
The teams below are the other nine:
'74 Knicks
'74 Bullets
'74 Pistons
'74 Bucks
'74 Bulls
'75 Celtics
'75 Bulls
'75 Bullets
'76 Warriors
Is there an easy explanation for the reason that the 1973-74 season alone produced five historically great defenses? Was there a rule change I don't remember that affected the data or was expansion to blame? Was the league too unathletic as next-generation stars packed the ABA?

This was palming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDRQ0FYhC0U


Players today would be getting 30 turnovers a game

[Paul George 24]

This. Old geezers love to wax poetic. MJ is no diffrent.

wait until lebron at 39 if can stills drops 51