LeBron's recent move to South Beach hasn't just bothered residents of Ohio and various basketball fans around the country. It has also drawn criticism from Michael Jordan: "There's no way, with hindsight, I would've ever called up Larry [Bird], called up Magic [Johnson] and said, 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team.' But that's ... things are different. I can't say that's a bad thing. It's an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys." Just to review... LeBron tried for seven years to win an NBA title in Cleveland. But after failing to get a ring, LeBron is moving to Miami to play with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Mike Miller. This quartet produced 65 wins last year (please see Stumbling on Wins for details on how Wins Produced is calculated), or more than the entire Cavaliers roster - with LeBron - produced in 2009-10. In sum, this looks like a good move for a player who wants to contend for a title. Jordan, though, doesn't approve. MJ was part of six NBA championship teams, and all of these were with the same team that drafted him in 1984. After these six titles a mythology developed around Jordan. Many people now believe that Jordan was the only one responsible for these titles. In fact, many people seem to think that the Bulls only won because Jordan had the power to "will" his team to victory. Therefore, for us to believe that a player is truly "another Jordan", he must do the same thing. LeBron, though, is apparently taking the easy way out. Instead of "willing" the Cavaliers to a title, King James - by joining Dwyane Wade and the Heat - is admitting that he can't win a title by himself. And this means that LeBron is not "like Mike." But did Jordan win six titles by himself? History seems to tell a very different story. The Chicago Bulls didn't win their first title until 1991. At that time, Jordan was 27 years old and in his seventh NBA season. What happened in Jordan's first six seasons? Across these six seasons MJ's team won 260 games, or about 43 wins per year. Of these victories, about 134 could be attributed to the statistical production of Jordan. Despite this production, though, Jordan's teammates didn't produce enough for the Bulls to win a title. In fact - despite MJ's desire to defeat Bird and the Celtics - his teammates were not good enough for Jordan's Bulls to win a single playoff game against Boston. Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-berri/lebron-is-doing-for-himse_b_658348.html
