Michael Jordan Is Over-Rated

[Oliver P]

There is something in this thread that has not been said yet. And it is the main reason why, IMO, and even if as I said many times myself a case can be made for many players as the greatest of All Time, it is impossible to say that one player in particular is the best of All Time for sure, but for the reason what I'm about to talk about in this thread I definitely think that Jordan is the one that has the best case.

 

And this reason is that one : no player in the history made his team win all by himself, every superstar needed help to win a ring, which is pretty logical as basketball is a collective game ; BUT the fact is that Michael Jordan definitely didn't rely as heavily on his teammates as any other All Time greatest (besides as all the people who watched Michael play know, in the money time there was no triangle nor nothing, it was just "give the ball to Jordan and let him win the game for us").

 

Yeah I often hear that Jordan had great teammates, like Pippen, another Hall of Famer, or Rodman, arguably the greatest defender ever, etc... Yes of course, he had great teammates indeed, again it's impossible to win it all by yourself in a collective game. But still the fact is that Jordan's individual performances the year he won rings are clearly the best that a player ever had WHILE making his teams win. As a matter of fact, when we look at it, the best players of All Time all had their best individual performances the years they didn't win rings. Let's take Chamberlain for example, as we all know the dude had crazy seasons, he even scored once 50 PPG in a season, another time he scored more than 44 PPG... In his first eight seasons in the NBA Wilt's lowest scoring per game was 33.5 PGG. The year he won his first ring ? 24.1 PPG ; 21.7 in the playoffs. The year he won his second ring ? 14.8 PPG ; 14.7 in the playoffs.That's a major difference... The main reason for this change in his game was that Wilt understood that he just couldn't win it all by himself. And he started to play less for himself and more for his teammates. A la Bill Russell. Bill said it himself when Wilt arrived in Phila, Bill said "right now Wilt is playing like me". Playing like Bill Russell meaning : focus more on defense and rebounds, and more on getting your teammates involved. Wilt used his passing skills more than ever before from his Phila days on (it is often said that Bill was terrible offensively but it's definitely wrong, Bill is certailny not the best scorer ever but he had a HUGE impact on his team offensively nonetheless, this thanks to his great assist, he was the Magic Johnson of centers). And became more of a TRUE basketball player. The change was totally completed in his Lakers days, when Bill Sharman, who was a Bill Russell teammate, asked Wilt to be even more like Russell and only score as a last resort. According to many people at the time and Wilt himself actually, Wilt became a much better player when he started to play as Bill Russell. Wilt even said once that scoring 100 points was the worst thing he ever did... That says it all.

 

So the most dominant player ever (arguably) had to change his game and to become WAY less dominant to start to make his team win, which is after all the goal of basketball... The same happened to all the greatest players. Alright Jordan did adapt to better teammates to, but to a lesser extent... His numbers were still very high, higher than every other greatest of All Time.

It's very simple in fact, how many players scored over 30 PPG and won a ring the same season ? The answer is three : Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rick Barry and... Michael Jordan. That says it all. Besides it's important to know that Barry and Jabbar only did it once each. While Michael did it four times. Also it was in the 70's for Jabbar and Barry, it was another era.. while Jordan did that in our era. And Jabbar and Barry did not score 30 PPG in the playoffs that same year (71 for Kareem, 75 for Barry). Jordan did. Not only that but he scored EVEN MORE POINTS in the playoffs three of those four years (92, 93, 96), he scored around the same the other year (91).

And about Jabbar, everyone agreed at the time that Jabbar was definitely a better player when he started to defend more and focus more on rebounds, à la Bill Russell once again than he was in his early Milwaukee days.

 

Speaking about the playoffs, how many players scored more than 30 PPG in the playoffs while making their teams win ? Two players : Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan. Olajuwon did it once, in 95, Jordan did it six times....

 

Now I already talked about Jordan's most impressive records (at least to me), his best scoring records in the Finals, and I'm gonna mention them here once again :

 

First of all the Finals records : Jordan averaged 41 PPG against Phoenix in 93 which is the best scoring average ever in a Finals series. He scored 55 points in one game of the same 93 Finals, it's the second best ever performance in a finals game. He scored at least 20 points in 35 consecutive Finals games, another record (second is West with 25). He also scored at least 30 points in 9 Finals games, second best ever (Baylor was number one). He scored at least 40 points in 4 Finals games in a row, NBA record. He scored 35 points in one half of a finals game, NBA record once again.

 

There are several important things to know about those records, things I never precised before : First of all about the 41 PPG against Phoenix, it's important to know that the two players that were the closest to Jordan for most PPG in a Finals series were Barry (40.8) and Baylor (40.6). Well contrary to Jordan both players did not make their team win the ring that year.

Second about the 35 consecutive Finals games with at least 20 points. As I said the second best is West with "only" 25 consecutive games, well West did that record between 66 and 70, the Lakers made it to the Finals four times during that time and they did not win even once Finals series. The third was Erving, 19 consecutive games between 77 and 83, the Sixers made it to the Finals four times, Erving made his team win only once, despite that record, in 83.

Third about the 9 consecutive Finals games with at least 30 pts, only Baylor did better with 13 consecutive games. It was between 59 and 63. Three Finals series. And yes the Lakers lost them all again...

Then about the 4 consecutive Finals games with at least 40 pts, the closest to Jordan were West and Barry. Both had two consecutive games with at least 40, twice for West in the 65 and 69 Finals, once for Barry in the 67 Finals. Well once again West and Barry's teams all lost those Finals.

 

So what can we conclude from all of this ? First of all the closest to Jordan were not only from another era (which makes Jordan's records look even more impressive) but they all failed to make their teams win ! Contrary to Jordan.

 

Besides Jordan is the only player to average more than 30 PPG in career in the playoffs. That's right no one else has ever done that. His scoring average in the playoffs is : 33.45 PPG. Huge...

 

So Jordan is definitely the most dominant scorer ever, there is no doubt about that, and also the only player in the history of the game who was able to dominate that much individually and make his team win at the same time.