Why is jordan considered to be the greatest?

Question

For critics: Im asking this not because of my lack of knowledge of the game but to get others opinions on why they believe he is the greatest. I like to see others point of view and not be narrowed minded like some of the people who post on this site. And what i meant by "people who just watch espn highlights" its just as it says. u do realize that there are people out there who never watch fulI games then have the nerve to make comments about a person or teams' game because of something they saw on espn. Dnt say a player or team sucks just because u watched a highlight film on them when they played your team.

also in case your wondering i for one do not believe in "he is the greatest of all time". I do believe in however "greatest of his era and position." I believe that if i had to choose i would put bill russell as my top big man and oscar robertson as my top guard.

(F)akers: thats a good answer. your right, if the players themselves are giving him this title than perhaps thats y he has it. and who im i to argue with other greats and hall of famers.

but then again everyone u named were players that faced him. im pretty sure if i asked all of bill russells competitors if they thought he was the greatest they would agree. And defense deserves just as much hype and credibility as offense so we cant hold it against bill because he played better defense than offense it takes both to win. and whose to say shaq wouldnt struggle against him. i kno hes kno hakeem but he did score. and hakeem was smaller than shaq but was never dominated by him. also i kno the talent pool wasnt like it is now but those players were more fundamentally sound and whose to say that some like russell wouldnt dominate like my boy tim duncan does? this is why i just usually rank my players according to the era they played in because its too many what ifs and he could ofs.

Hoop fan you hit the nail in coffin. i like your reason. This is y i asked this question to get others on here who do not feel that jordan is the messiah of b-ball. so many of this generation believes that he is because he is all they have seen. other than wilt no one gives me greater competition to decifer who really deserves the crown besides bill russell. the only agrument i ever come up with is "he played against a bunch a short white dudes" but we all know that dosent hold much water if any. cant fault the man for the era he played in. i say bill u say wilt they battled like hell. so i give them a tie for best big man (because i personally cant decide). but still oscar robertson is my pick for most dominating guard. jordan on the other hand didnt win until the greats were near retirement and he couldnt do it until he got future hall of famers on his team.

Preach Alpha Wolfe Preach!!! You get a standing novation for that. damn yall gonna make it hard for me to choose a best answer.

Big ups tweety maybe this is why Pipen went on his spree of saying him and Jordan were equal as far as whos better he was sick of hearing about Jordan being the greatest and how Jordan made him into the superstar he was.

Answer 1

He's only considered to be the greatest by "Jordan fanatics" . Their knowledge of basketball is limited to watching the ESPN highlight reels or buying Nike shoes.

Real basketball fans know he wasn't the greatest.
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"Marianne K"....Jordan was an average rebounder (for a guard), a horrible passer , an overrated defender ( in the 90's), and he missed as many clutch shots as he made. He only scored as much as he did because he almost always led the league in shot attempts. So HOW is he the greatest?!?

No player in the history of sports was as promoted as Jordan was. Also, no player was as coddled by the officials and by the league (rule changes made to benefit Jordan). Wilt Chamberlain never had that benefit, and he still was the most dominant player ever!
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(F) ockers is a prime example of a "Jordan fanatic".

The Celtics were not great when Russell joined them either. He made them great, winning the championship his rookie season. They had never won a championship before Russell joined them.

It took Jordan 7 YEARS to get over the hurdle, and he NEEDED great players and a watered-down league to do that!

And less teams makes for a stronger league, not a weaker one. Bill Russell never had a "night off". He'd have to go up against Wilt one night, then turn around and have to guard Nate Thurmond, or Walt Bellamy (all HOF'ers). Most years, Russell and Wilt faced off 10-12 times, not including playoffs.

Jordan had the fortune of playing against guys that would never have even made the NBA, if there wasn't so many teams.

And to say that Russell guarding Shaq would be a mismatch is absurd. Russell had to guard the most dominate player in history (Wilt), several times a year mind you, and more than held his own.

These are just SOME of the records Wilt Chamberlain holds:

Highest point total in one game: 100
Highest career ppg : 30.1 (tied w/Jordan)
Most 70+ point games: 6 (Jordan never scored 70 pts)
Most 60+ point games: 32 (Jordan has 5)
Most 50+ point games: 118 (Jordan has only 30)
Most 40+ point games: 271
Most consecutive 50+ point games: 7
Most consecutive 40+ point games: 14
Most consecutive 30+ point games: 65
Most consecutive 20+ point games: 126
Most consecutive field goals made: 35
Highest FG% in one season: .727%
Highest ppg in one season: 50.4 ppg

Wilt has 15 of the top 25 highest scoring games in history. Jordan has 2.

Again, these are just some of Wilt's SCORING records, the category that Jordan is supposed to dominate. He was also the greatest rebounder ever, played the most minutes ever, LEAD THE LEAGUE in assists one season ( Jordan made the top ten in assists ONCE, as a GUARD!!), and is probably #1 or 2 in blocks, had that been an official stat.

So how can anyone say that Jordan was better than Wilt?!?
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"texasboy".....I agree with you 100% about the Big 'O' .
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LOL......"Tweety" beat me to it......"not dumb" needs to change his name

Answer 2

First off you got it right, Smush was the player so look
for your 10 points.
As for this question, My favorite player of all time is Magic Johnson, but here is what Magic thought of MJ
"There's Michael Jordan and then there is the rest of us."
Also Bird, joked when he scored 63 on them in the
playoffs, that was not MJ, it was God pretending to
be Jordan.

If he is the Finals MVP 6 Times, and First Team defensive
player 9 times, and leading scorer 10 times. And holds
holds the record for the most point scored by a 38 year old
51 points, he holds the record for the most point scored by a
40 year old 40 points. And other players, like Barkley say
he was the greatest of all time. I have to accept it. Only
argument might be Bill Russel, but he was more of a
defensive player, and was with a better organization the
Celtics, Bulls were not that great when Jordan got there.
I have flip flopped between Bill Russell and Michael Jordan
alot, one thing about Bill was that he won more titles and
he also won a title as a Coach/Player. But based on the
fact that there are more teams and the game has better
player now that in those days, you can argue that Bill
would not win as many titles or be as dominating. Put
Shaq against Bill and I think it would create match up
problems physically. So that's one aspect that player
are much more physically gifted, but a bit less fundamentally
sound.

Here is a list of hist achievements and I left ff the Slam Dunk
Title and amazing things he did in games. not to mention the
clutch shots.

Most scoring title 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)
14 time All-Star
Olympic Gold Medal Winner 1984, 1992
Five time MVP 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998
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

Answer 3

Don't know how old you are but if you ever watched him play that is enough to decide for yourself that he IS the greatest player and always will be the greatest player in the NBA. I don't even like the bulls but watching him play he's just an all around player and a clutch player you could always depend on!!! I would love a player like that on my team!!! Let alone all the stats he has accumulated shows this as well!! I'm sure I can add more but you don't want to be to bored with a longer answer. Keep up the good questions!!!
P.S. A female answering this one!!! I LOVE the game!!!!!
P.P.S. OK Hoopfan ESPN highlights is not basketball, exactly what the name is HIGHLIGHTS!!!
P.P.P.S. Well, all I'm saying is rules do change for instance the three point shot how do we really determine the greatest player ever with changes like this in basketball. Just wanted to answer the man's question!! THANKS Texasboy84!

Answer 4

Here's just a few reasons why...

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

Some of his 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)

Answer 5

Because Jordan made his team the best when he was gone for 2 years they didnt even make the playoffs and he comes back and they win 3 more championships in a row, if he didnt retire the 1st time he would have ended his career with 8 titles in a row, thats why!

Answer 6

I'm not a real fan of b-ball, but the man was great. With that said, many rules were were specific to MJ. No other basket ball player is allowed to take 3-5 steps without dribbling, to take flight at the end of his jog and score.

Again he was great, but he was allowed to bend the rules, or have them bent for him.

He was considered the greatest, because he may well have been!

Answer 7

Because he was more entertaining to watch then anyone up until Bryant. But there are other players that were probably equally as dominant in their own way. Hakeem the Dream.

Answer 8

Let's compare Wilt Chamberlain to Jordan, for instance. Wilt has 56 NBA single-season records to Jordan's 4. Wilt nearly QUADRUPLED the number of 50 point games Jordan had in his career. Wilt led the league in assists, fg%, minutes and rebounds 29 times to Jordan's Zero. He owns 6 of the 9 70+ point games in history - Jordan has zero. He topped Jordan's best scoring season three times and Wilt's best scoring season is 13 ppg higher than Jordan's. Imagine Jordan leading the league in scoring at 33 ppg and the runner up having 20 ppg. Simply put, Wilt was in a class ahead of Jordan.

A Jordan fan will respond with, "Yeah, but Wilt only has 2 rings to Jordan's 6". Fine. That means stats mean very little and the much stronger emphasis is on championships. When one man so strongly overwhelms another in the area of statistical accomplishments, to say he is not better means stats are irrelevant.

Therefore, to say Jordan is better is Wilt means stats and scoring are irrelevant. Since championships are the overwhelming factor, then we have to look at the man who prevented Wilt from winning more championships - Bill Russell. He has 11 championships to Jordan's 6. He has nearly TWICE the number of championships. Therefore, Bill Russell simply has to be better than Jordan. Let me repeat that - as impressive as Jordan's six titles are, it simply pales in comparison to Russell. To win 6 championships, it took Michael Jordan 14 years and Bill Russell only 7 years. Jordan played 15 seasons to Russell's 13, yet Russell has FIVE more championships than Jordan. Jordan and Magic Johnson COMBINED have as many rings as Bill Russell. Jordan and Magic defined "winning" for an entire generation! Yet, it takes both of them together to match the dominance of Bill Russell!

A Jordan fan cannot say that Jordan was a better individual player than Russell. After all, Russell AVERAGED over 22 rebounds per game. He is acknowledged by most to be the greatest defensive player in the history of the game, and to go along with that, he finished in the top 10 in the league in assists FOUR times (Jordan only did this once). He added 15 ppg to go along with this superior passing, rebounding, and defense.

The only recourse for a Jordan worshipper is to discount Russell's superior defense, rebounding, passing, and his overwhelming dominance in championships -- discount all of it -- and say "Jordan scored more points". However, as I showed above, points are irrelevant. Wilt Chamberlain dominated Jordan in points, and most other categories, but this was all discounted because of championships. You simply cannot say that Jordan's extra scoring somehow makes up for a 5 ring deficit after you just discounted Wilt's OVERWHELMING dominance of Jordan in scoring on account of a 4 ring deficit. And face it: it has to come down to points and rings because Jordan's passing and rebounding are simply unimpressive and his defense - while exceptional - is not on a plane higher than Chamberlain and Russell.

Therefore, there is no way that Michael Jordan can be the greatest player in history.

He's the greatest Endorser..so far...that's it!!....thanks Corporate america..you ruined the greatest game ever...to sell shoes!!!.......

Answer 9

because he could dunk very well

and he was corporations/business' favorite player to market since his athleticism could make him do impressive dunks and plays

oh yea he won 6 championships in the 90s while doing jack squat when bird, magic, moses malone and isiah were in their primes in the 80s....ahem sarcasm

Answer 10

he's a legend!!! he has it all from the footwork,speed, to the skin dude he can even pose while shooting the ball effortlessly