Can we please stop?
Every year around this time we start hearing the same debate: Has LeBron James eclipsed Michael Jordan as the best basketball player to have ever played the game?
It makes my eardrums bleed. The pain isn't a result of being on one side of the fence or the other. Rather, it's the debate itself.
There are multiple factors that make the argument either way ludicrous.
First, we're talking different eras. Second, we're talking different positions and two players whose games are in no way comparable. Last, if we're talking about winning, we're leaving someone out of the argument.
The era problem
There are two ways to look at this one and the first will probably make you Jordan loyalists the least upset.
First, when Jordan played it was a different game.
Back in those ancient times, big men roamed the earth (no, not ones who stand in the corner and shoot analytic-lovers' 3s like today; those guys actually played in the post and it was actually physical).
Also, in those days there were players who were labeled as 3-point specialists (yeah, the stars weren't heaving up 10-15 treys a game; rather, the guys who led the league in 3-point percentage were usually guys who played off the stars and got open looks).
In Jordan's days, the players didn't fraternize as much (at least not for the public to see). You'd never see a guy like Jayson Tatum dunk on Jordan and proceed to shoulder bump him without there being some kind of message sent. What we saw Sunday night was LeBron with little response to it, and after the game the two shared a long hugging embrace.
I'm not saying either way is better; I'm just saying they were different.
Now, for you Jordan guys who will forever hold His Airness head and shoulders above anyone else who dares to challenge his pedestal, it's time for a little psychoanalysis. Yes, I'm going into your brain on this one.
You'll never admit it, but you've been brainwashed. Before Jordan, there was never a marketing explosion of its kind that skyrocketed an athlete's greatness straight into your subconscious mind. Hence, that's why you'll never admit it; you don't even know you know it.
Jordan, to those of us who grew up in that era, became more than a player. He was a brand. He was larger than life and perhaps even celestial. Let's face it: The guy had a second coming and a third coming.
Therefore, most people from that era will forever cling to those warm thoughts, unwilling to allow anything to be real enough to ruin that comfort zone.
Well, I'm here to admit that perhaps the reason I can be somewhat objective is I wasn't a Jordan guy. In fact, I rooted against him. So perhaps I am a little biased, but I could never be as biased as a true Jordan fan.
I'm also not a LeBron James fan. Therefore, if I didn't think the idea of comparing the two was so illogically, I believe I'd give a pretty objective look at it.
