It's Michael Jordan's 60's birthday

 

Photo: public domain

Today, February 17, 2023, is the 60th birthday of Michael Jordan.

Earlier this week, I heard Nick Wright on Colin Cowherd's podcast discuss how the admiration of Jordan has distorted the sports media landscape. Wright himself has the reputation of having a pro-Lebron James bias in debates over the greatest NBA player of all time (GOAT), but he articulated something that has bothered me for a long time.

Eight years ago, when the Patriots won their fourth Super Bowl with Tom Brady at quarterback, we heard people say or imply that Joe Montana's 4-0 record as Super Bowl quarterback was more impressive than Brady's (then) record of 4-2. 

They weren't saying Montana had played better in his Super Bowls. They weren't saying Montana was still better than Brady. Those were valid opinions. Instead, they used Brady's achievement of winning six conference championships against him.

That irritated me and apparently Wright as well. But Wright said that this really goes back to Jordan. People wanted to hold on to Jordan's 6-0 record in the NBA Finals as better than Kareem Abdul Jabbar's record of 6-4. As if being runner-up is worse than not reaching the Finals at all, or, logically, than even reaching the playoffs. 

But it's not Kareem who's the real target, it's LeBron. At that time, LeBron was 2-3 in the Finals. If he had reached 6-3 (as it turns out, he's now at 4-6) advocates of Jordan's GOAT status would point to LeBron's Finals losses as proof that Jordan was better.

Jordan's advocates tend to be really insecure.

As it is, no one except Bill Russell has been the best player on more than six NBA Champion teams. Russell was an eleven-time NBA champion, but there were fewer than half as many teams as there are currently.

I was thinking about how we think about the GOAT in basketball. An idea popped into my head to just look at the simplest data.

I added up the number of 1st-Team All-NBA selections plus the number of NBA titles, controlling for the number of seasons played.

Here are my results:

1. Michael Jordan 

2. Lebron James 

3. Magic Johnson 

4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

5. Kobe Bryant  

6. Tim Duncan 

7. Larry Bird

I excluded players from the first 25 years or so of the NBA because the league had fewer than half as many teams as it did now and it's harder to gauge how impressive an accomplishment to be selected an All-NBAer or to play fewer playoff rounds to win the title.

So, the GOAT is really the "greatest of the modern NBA." 

By the simplest measures, it remains Michael Jordan.

So, congratulations Michael!  I'm sure you need my affirmation to remove any doubt about yourself. Consider it my birthday present.

James Leroy Wilson writes The MVP Chase, Daily Miracles, The Daily Bible Chapter, and JL Cells. Thanks for your subscriptions and support! You may contact James for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com.