Why is Jordan so much better than everyone?

Question

Whenever "knowledgeable" people discuss basketball and the "greatest" ever Jordan is an automatic number one with the number 2 light years behind him. Why? Some media types say its because of the 6 rings....Russel has more rings than fingers. Then other say well Jordan made everyone around him "better" thats not hard when ur teammates with one of the 50 greatest players as well as one of the best 3point shooters in the history of the game (Kerr 45% career 3pt shooter). OK it must be that he is such a prolific scorer...Chamberlain nothing else needs to be said. I think that the Jordan infatuation is just a result of his playing career being in phase with media renaissance. Chamberlain 100pt game probably wasn't known about nationally till a few days after it happened today if a player (not Kobe) has 25 in the first half the entire world already knows about it. Am i completely off with this argument?

I dont want to take anything away from him, its just that the whole "gratest of all time" title is ridiculous. The younger generation always surpasses the older one in everything. physically, mentally, and socially. We do what our grandparents did in college when we're in middle school, someone breaks the 100m record almost every year, and i can ride in the front of any bus if my car breaks down. With that said its stupid to assume that nobody in the future will be better than someone from 10 yrs ago(wizards thing was a joke). And since we cant travel backwards in time so its also stupid to measure todays athletes against yesterdays or tomorrows. There should be no greatest of all time, only greatest of era's put it that way and Jordan is hands down the best of the 90's. Any other title is disrespectful to past players and insulting to future players

The finals argument is asinine, measure players that way and u have to put Robert Horry in the top five. He hits buzzer beater after buzzer beater and the ball is always in his hands when its crunch time. If thats ur argument you don't watch much basketball. Chamberland dominated 11 finals

Watch one quarter of any NBA basketball game in the last 20 yrs and you'll see how many times wide open 3's are made. Your right miller is way better than Kerr but i said Kerr was one of the best not the best. If you ever played 5 min of team basketball u know how valuable a 45% 3pt shooter is, open or not you cant argue with 45% if it was that simple the NBA average wouldn't be below 40

Answer 1

It's not about MJ's accomplishments. Russell has more rings and Kareem's got 6 MVP's. It's not about the his stats. Some guys will probably overtake his records in the near future. It's not about his athleticism and skill. A lot of today's players are faster and jump higher, and still a number of them could certainly match His Airness' skills.

But what about competitiveness and love for the game? Can you find any current NBA player with the same amount of competitive fire that Jordan had? I can only think of 2 other players who were at least as competitive: Bird and Magic. And both are also retired. If you think Jordan played hard in actual games, just ask his former teammates how he played in practice. He played even harder during practices, and that's what separates him from any great player from any generation. Because of his love for the game, he treated every game, including practices and exhibitions, as a championship game. He never coasted along, which is what current players do, especially in practices, to avoid injury. And speaking of injury, MJ played through pain a number of times but he emerged victorious. Remember Game 5 of the '97 Finals, when he played dehydrated while nursing a 38-degree fever and still came up with his usual end game heroics? That's a lot more heroic than what Willis Reed did in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals. You're right about his "career being in phase with media renaissance". But we should be thankful though that because of this media renaissance, we we're able to watch someone worthy of this media exposure. He certainly wasn't just a media hype. He was something we might not see again.

Answer 2

Jordan has an air of mystery and greatness behind him. He closed out many games, made big dunks, pulled off insane comebacks, and was unstoppable when he was determined to win. Watch the entire early-late 90's Bulls playoffs. That should answer your question. Keep in mind, they say, it was nearly twice as hard to score in the 80's/90's because the refs didn't suck then. So when Kobe drops 81 now, thats about the equivilant of Jordan dropping 50. He is by far the most athletic player to date, maybe not the best shooter, maybe not even the best dunker (Vince Carter? maybe im just dreaming). But he was GOOD. He is #1, but not lightyears in front of everyone else. By the way, Kerr is over rated. Reggie Miller could beat him in a three point shooting contest in his prime any day. All of Kerr's threes were wide open due to double teams on his team mates.

Answer 3

Magic was a better all around player. Tell me could Jordan play center? And Jordan didn't start winning until the Celtics, Lakers, Pistons and Blazers started to fall apart in the early 90s. Jordan was a great player, on a great team, in a bad league when he started winning.

Answer 4

I think it is because Micheal jordan did not stop playing that long ago while wilt played played at his peak back in the 60's. And Jordan is what drew alot of fans to the NBA so they might not know much about the players before him since they probably were not watching back then.

Answer 5

HEY CHINO, let me tell you one thing. Michael Jerkan would have never even made a layup or dunk against either Russell or Chamberlain. They would have stuffed the ball right down his throat. Michael is maybe the 3rd beat player of all time only because he didn't have to ever play against the 2 best players ever.

Answer 6

Lets see the reason Scottie Pippen & Stever Kerr were so good is BECAUSE OF MICHAEL JORDAN. When Jordan retired in 1993 to play baseball, Scottie & Steve didn't win a championship in 94. They had to wait for MJ to comeback to win again. And after MJ retired in 96 Scottie & the bulls didn't win one again....When Russell and Chamberlain were playing, there was no Competition like there was one when Jordan was playing... I mean can you honestly tell me who defended Russell & Wilt? The guys who Jordan dominated where named Wilkins, Bird, Magic Johnson, Clyde Drexler and the list goes on...Michael Jordan just doesn't have 6 rings, ---->

Awards

14 time All-Star
Olympic Gold Medal Winner—1984, 1992
Five time MVP—1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998
7 time The Sporting News MVP
Rookie of the Year—1984
Defensive Player of the Year—1988
11 times All-NBA—10 times first team, 1 time second team
9 time All-Defensive First Team
Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year"—1991
Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996
Records

Most scoring titles—10
Most NBA Finals MVP awards—6
Highest career scoring average—30.12
Highest career scoring average playoffs—33.45
Most consecutive games scoring in double figures—866
Highest single series scoring average NBA Finals—41.0 (1993)

MJ IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

Answer 7

Go to you tube and just watch his top ten buzzer beaters of all time. No one has that combo getting to the hoop and shooting, he just does it so effortlessly. Plus He has 6 titles and is always the one with the ball in crunch time and always delivers. You really just had to watch him dominate finals after finals to understand. When you think of Wilt remember he was the only one of his stature the time he was essentially a 7 footer jamming on guys 6 inches smaller than him. Today a 7' 5'' guy like yao cant even dominate like that, so the competition has gotten much better over time, you need to keep that in mind.

Answer 8

kobe is betta than micheal jordan