Rookie MJ>>>>>

[Rose'sACL]

You're clearly bitter and angry. Go jack off a few times, it'll help you relieve some of that anger.

keep telling yourself that anyone who doesn't agree with you is just angry. I am new so i didn't know you are a troll.

[The Choken One]

MJ is heads and shoulders above EVERY player to play the game except KAJ. And you're an idiot if you don't believe KAJ has an argument for GOAT.

[andgar923]

MJ is heads and shoulders above EVERY player to play the game except KAJ. And you're an idiot if you don't believe KAJ has an argument for GOAT.

KAJ def has a strong argument, so does Bird to be honest.

[OldSchoolBBall]

Also is that Hubie Brown calling the game?

At 4:02 of the NBA All-Stars Vs. '84 Olympic Team:

"In my opinion Michael Jordan has the opportunity to become one of the all time great basketball players in the history of the game"

Pretty prophetic statement from someone before Jordan had even played a single NBA game. That announcer was dead on.

No less an authority than Bobby Knight himself said, after coaching Jordan during the Olympics in '84, that "barring injury" he will go down as the greatest player to ever play the game." This is before he had even set foot on an NBA court, mind you.

People knew even then.

[2010splash]

MJ is heads and shoulders above EVERY player to play the game except KAJ. And you're an idiot if you don't believe KAJ has an argument for GOAT.

Rookie Jordan is not better than LeBron, not even close in fact. No point in trying to convince wackjobs otherwise. It's like trying to convince somebody who believes the earth is flat that it's actually round. If they want to purposely be obtuse and ignore provable truths, nothing you can do except let the psychos believe they are right. Jordan was a 28/7/6 on .592 TS, .515 FG, 25.8 PER player his rookie year. Not only are those stats inflated due to pace (and therefore cannot be directly compared to 2013 stats) but how those numbers are better than 27/8/7 on .640 TS, .565 FG, and 31.7 PER is beyond me. Not even bringing up LeBron's edge on defense vs. rookie Jordan. And if you want to bring up every technical skill as a way to compare the two, you can argue several mediocre centers were better than Shaq or Dwight pre-back injury.

And KAJ is definitely not better than LeBron. Bird is nowhere close. Riding Magic's coattails to 4 titles to embellish your career resume doesn't make you a legitimate GOAT candidate. Jordan is the current GOAT, and LeBron will definitely be up there as a candidate (consensus #2 player all time) when his career is done.

[RRR3]

Don't forget GOAT time father, best dresser, GM and shoe sales man

Is there anything the man can't do?

[diamenz]

two year old mj was better.

[andgar923]

two year old mj was better.

Not for nothing but a very quick example was during the last game. Bron almost fell trying to give a stutter step, lost his balance and was out of control and he wasn't even going full speed.

MJ on the other hand could give you somebody a stutter step while going full speed and continue seamlessly without a hitch to the basket.

It's small physical stuff like that.

And small shit like a simple give and go. How often do you see Bron give a pump fake, give a quick pass and cut? He usually just stands there on the perimeter and runs around. His off the ball game is pathetic when compared to rookie MJ. He doesn't cut and use footwork to elude his man, he can't come off screens and hit jumpers. How many times does he come off a screen only to hold the ball and dribble instead of a quick pull up or move?

People wanna say that rookie Mj isn't even close?

The man stumbles on his own feet for god sake?

[Pointguard]

Jordan was 22 years old most of his rookie season and he was about equal to Lebron at the same age. Lebron had a much better feel for the pro game and part of that was just experience. On the same token Jordan was introduced to better fundamentals, the parts of the game, and individual aspects of the game in college. So Jordan was better in most aspects of the game but a lot of players who had three years of great college were better in a lot of aspects (Pierce, Dominique, Barry, Pippien - even Stackhouse had a better post game, mid game, long range game than Lebron coming in) than Lebron when he first came into the league. They definitely were not better. I think we hypnotize ourselves into aspects of the game rather than the full impact of the player.

Jordan was still in his let me show you what I can do stage as a rookie. He wasn't fully integrated into the team. Neither one of them (Jordan/Lebron) had good teams but Lebron did make it to the finals. Lebron had already shown his ability to be whatever the team needed. His team game was definitely superior to Jordan's at this time.

Jordan was an amazing rookie and already a great individual player. He could already will himself into great situations and some wins, but he couldn't make his team a winner just yet. Lebron was always a combination of wise decision making, versatility, team ball and the ability to make it happen.

[andgar923]

Jordan was 22 years old most of his rookie season and he was about equal to Lebron at the same age. Lebron had a much better feel for the pro game and part of that was just experience. On the same token Jordan was introduced to better fundamentals, the parts of the game, and individual aspects of the game in college. So Jordan was better in most aspects of the game but a lot of players who had three years of great college were better in a lot of aspects (Pierce, Dominique, Barry, Pippien - even Stackhouse had a better post game, mid game, long range game than Lebron coming in) than Lebron when he first came into the league. They definitely were not better. I think we hypnotize ourselves into aspects of the game rather than the full impact of the player.

Jordan was still in his let me show you what I can do stage as a rookie. He wasn't fully integrated into the team. Neither one of them (Jordan/Lebron) had good teams but Lebron did make it to the finals. Lebron had already shown his ability to be whatever the team needed. His team game was definitely superior to Jordan's at this time.

Jordan was an amazing rookie and already a great individual player. He could already will himself into great situations and some wins, but he couldn't make his team a winner just yet. Lebron was always a combination of wise decision making, versatility, team ball and the ability to make it happen.

MJ as a rookie had a slightly better feel for the game than Bron currently has. Up until last season Bron was always criticized for not taking over games, the kind of passes he made, when he made them. Even in these playoff series we see instances in which MJ would've exploited the defense in an eye blink, but Bron decides to instead do the opposite.

MJ didn't have a full impact as a player?

He took a franchise that had been out of the playoffs for years into the playoffs as a rookie when the league was full of MEN not boys. That's not having an impact? he was taking over games, he was controlling games, the defense was geared to stop him not David Corzine. He carried the Bulls franchise since day 1. He dominated NBA players (legends in their prime) before he even played an official NBA game. Let us not hypnotize ourselves into thinking he was just a flashy player full of highlights with little substance and minimal impact.

"Lebron was always a combination of wise decision making, versatility, team ball and ability to make it all happen" are you serious? he is still being crticized for not taking over games. He is still being criticized for being too passive. He is still being criticized by some questionable decisions. What world are you in?

I think it's hard for people to fathom the impact some of players had back then. These were players that went to college and gained the experience to adapt to an NBA game quicker than most of today's players. People are also forgetting that MJ came into the league as a decorated college player and Olympian that many were calling one of the greatest to ever play before he played an NBA game. It wasn't hype that was created by the media or Nike, he earned the respect with his play.

Whatever superlative one wants to use to describe current Bron, prime Kobe or Durant, MJ had it as a rookie.

[Doctor K]

wow

[Rose'sACL]

The truth is that if you didn't play in the 80s or 90s, you have no shot at being a top 5 player of all time because "muh nostalgia" and the fact that every little move you make on or off the court is scrutinized too much today unlike in the 80s or 90s.
Your legacy will always take a bigger hit when public has access to every little thing you do.
Also, rookie jordan was working on a cure for cancer but he was told by the nba to concentrate on basketball only. Such a great human being. He could do no wrong.

[K Xerxes]

MJ as a rookie had a slightly better feel for the game than Bron currently has.

Shut the **** up. You're embarrassing.

"Lebron was always a combination of wise decision making, versatility, team ball and ability to make it all happen" are you serious? he is still being crticized for not taking over games. He is still being criticized for being too passive. He is still being criticized by some questionable decisions. What world are you in?

You are simply using a different standard to measure LeBron. By 'not taking over games', I assume you mean 'why doesn't he drop 40 every game'? It's because there are a lot of games where he takes over with aspects not scoring: it could be passing to the hot hand, grabbing boards, guarding a hot player, controlling help defense and setting the tone.

It is not LeBron's nature to take over games the same way Michael did. And, FYI, there are many games where LeBron has taken over the way you refer to before last season: game 5 07 vs Detroit, 09 vs Orlando (first two games particularly) spring to mind. Don't confuse 'not taking over every game' with 'he didn't take over games'.

And, newsflash, there are some games where LeBron doesn't play well. Unbelievable, right?

'He is still being criticized for questionable decisions' - lol every player in the history of the game (and the future) are criticised for decisions at times. It's called being HUMAN, which Jordan was and is.

LeBron is now being judged on championships, not particular games. Just because he didn't take over game 4 the way you want him to doesn't mean he should be criticized because he sure as hell took over game 5 when the situation called for it. No one criticises LeBron for not taking over game 5 in the ECF last year because of what he did in game 6 and ultimately game 7 to close out the series.

As I said, shut the **** up. Prime Jordan is better than prime LeBron. Rookie Jordan isn't close to prime LeBron.

[Pointguard]

MJ as a rookie had a slightly better feel for the game than Bron currently has. Up until last season Bron was always criticized for not taking over games, the kind of passes he made, when he made them. Even in these playoff series we see instances in which MJ would've exploited the defense in an eye blink, but Bron decides to instead do the opposite.

MJ didn't have a full impact as a player?

He took a franchise that had been out of the playoffs for years into the playoffs as a rookie when the league was full of MEN not boys. That's not having an impact? he was taking over games, he was controlling games, the defense was geared to stop him not David Corzine. He carried the Bulls franchise since day 1. He dominated NBA players (legends in their prime) before he even played an official NBA game. Let us not hypnotize ourselves into thinking he was just a flashy player full of highlights with little substance and minimal impact.

No. I remember the time well. Jordan was not a dominant player because teams usually controlled the Bulls. He wasn't even winning every other game. They were like 5 games under .500 or something close to that. He could go off in a game but good teams had their way with them. He wasn't a team player at that point. While I enjoyed seeing him live in his rookie year moreso than the championship years because he was really aggressive with reckless abandon. He didn't know how to make his team win back then and had his own goals moreso than team goals at this stage of development. He was like that in his third year much less his rookie year.

"Lebron was always a combination of wise decision making, versatility, team ball and ability to make it all happen" are you serious? he is still being crticized for not taking over games. He is still being criticized for being too passive. He is still being criticized by some questionable decisions. What world are you in?

Wow, at first I didn't know you were trolling. You are like a 2.0 edition - trolling with harder recognition.

Understanding Lebron's game isn't that easy for a lot of people... and you are one of them. The Heat team that really suffered when he wasn't playing in the beginning of the year, matured to a very steady team winning 45 out of the last like 49 games. If I said to you name another steady player on the Heat in the last 50 games, against the better opponents, you would be hard pressed. Yet the team was absolutely dominant as was Lebron.