<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Living_Legend33 @ Jun 9 2007, 03:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>How different would basketball and sports be in general without Michael Jordan?</div>Basketball would be quite different. It would still be about the team and less about "being like Mike" and gunning for personal glory. Teams wouldn't be so filled with prima donnas.This year's final would be about Spurs vs. Cavaliers instead of Tim Duncan vs. LeBron James.Pseudo fans who watched only Jordan had a large positive FINANCIAL impact on the game, but I think the net effect on the quality of the game was negative. It's the generation of "I wanna be like Mike" players that got their butts kicked in international competition after 60 years of dominance.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jordanisoverrated @ Jun 9 2007, 06:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Basketball would be quite different. It would still be about the team and less about "being like Mike" and gunning for personal glory. Teams wouldn't be so filled with prima donnas.This year's final would be about Spurs vs. Cavaliers instead of Tim Duncan vs. LeBron James.Pseudo fans who watched only Jordan had a large positive FINANCIAL impact on the game, but I think the net effect on the quality of the game was negative. It's the generation of "I wanna be like Mike" players that got their butts kicked in international competition after 60 years of dominance.</div>Oh please. Team USA loses solely because it's thrown together at the last minute while the rest of the world has teams that play together for years. It's also poorly designed with a bunch of similar guys who do the same things. You can't expect star players that've been #1 scoring options since they were in high school to suddenly become role players in a month or two. Blaming Jordan for that is idiotic, unless you want to blame him for inspiring countless international players to take up the game in the first place. What sport doesn't specifically market it's stars? The reason they do it is because it worked so well for the NBA with Jordan. Jordan just gunned for personal glory? He has six titles. It's not his fault so many try to imitate him and fail. If anything it's a testament to how great he was. He was able to win on a team and individual level. The prima donnas come from bad coaching and bad "friends" that surround players and tell them how great they are constantly. It's a cultural thing that's developed because of how much money they make now. Although again, without Jordan basketball wouldn't be nearly as big so maybe there wouldn't be as much money to be made, which would probably result in much smaller egos.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Living_Legend33 @ Jun 9 2007, 09:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Oh please. Team USA loses solely because it's thrown together at the last minute while the rest of the world has teams that play together for years. It's also poorly designed with a bunch of similar guys who do the same things. You can't expect star players that've been #1 scoring options since they were in high school to suddenly become role players in a month or two. Blaming Jordan for that is idiotic, unless you want to blame him for inspiring countless international players to take up the game in the first place. What sport doesn't specifically market it's stars? The reason they do it is because it worked so well for the NBA with Jordan. Jordan just gunned for personal glory? He has six titles. It's not his fault so many try to imitate him and fail. If anything it's a testament to how great he was. He was able to win on a team and individual level. The prima donnas come from bad coaching and bad "friends" that surround players and tell them how great they are constantly. It's a cultural thing that's developed because of how much money they make now. Although again, without Jordan basketball wouldn't be nearly as big so maybe there wouldn't be as much money to be made, which would probably result in much smaller egos.</div>No league does so to the degree that the NBA does, and it wasn't like that pre Jordan/Stern.And I think it's no stretch that selfish players emulating Jordan, who make up much of the Olympic rosters, are the main reason the US teams don't play good team basketball and lose in international competition. It isn't even that they don't try to play unselfishly on those teams, it's that they just don't know how. They don't have the instincts for it, because that isn't what they do.Perhaps Jordan isn't to blame, but he is the example that triggered it. When someone playing the way he did is glorified to the degree he is, it's only natural for players to try to "be like Mike."
Really the media is to blame. They only glorified the MJ highlights but kids didn't see Jordan's full game. He was at LEAST good at every aspect of basketball. Can't say that about any player right now or ever really.
If you dont believe in MJs talents look at any playoff games of him. He played like Lebron in game 5 against Detroit nearly every playoff game of his entire life.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Let Em Hear This @ Jun 10 2007, 03:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Really the media is to blame. They only glorified the MJ highlights but kids didn't see Jordan's full game. He was at LEAST good at every aspect of basketball. Can't say that about any player right now or ever really.</div>So what area of basketball is it that Olajuwon was not "at least good" at?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jordanisoverrated @ Jun 17 2007, 02:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>So what area of basketball is it that Olajuwon was not "at least good" at?</div>As long as you are here, im sure this thread will never die.I agree Hakeem is on the same level as MJ. Hakeem was making finals appearances agaist Dynasty teams. He even gave the dynasty 80s Celtics and Lakers a run for their money when they were in their primes and he was just a kid. Best big man ive ever seen in my lifetime by far.If I had to rate top 5 players ever id say1.Michael Jordan2.Wilt Chamberlain3.Kareem Abdul Jabbar4.Hakeem Olajuwon5.Magic Johnson
