Anyone see what's wrong - OT

[tbhawksfan]

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wireta ... or_jordan/



He can play some ball, but he's not the brightest.


"if I'm not going to wear No. 23, then nobody else should be able to wear it," James said."


He would make a good dictator with that kind of mentality. If he wants to honor MJ, all he needs to do is shut up and honor him. This isn't honor, closer to idoltry. Could it be that the only reason he wants MJ held in such great esteme is that he also wants us to "honor" him as well.

I would put a smilie, but it's actually not funny. LJ is a tool.

[evildallas]

All always thought the sucking up to Michael Jordan by players of the last 20 years was excessive and foolish. Worse so by his contemporaries who were opponents (yes, you Charles Barkley). James can switch his number if he wants, but the NBA will not retire a number across the entire sport for something so subjective as a lot of people think you were the best all time. The reasons are plentiful.
1. Jordan is still associated with the league.
2. What if someone comes along who plays better. Best isn't a definitive accomplishment.
3. It belittles the contributions of other players.

Think about it, Baseball retired 42 across all teams to honor Jackie Robinson who was the 1st to break the color barrier. They did it after he died so it wasn't honoring a current team employee like Jordan. It was for being first at something, not arbitrarily best so no chance at someone duplicating that first. And while I think the honor belittled the contributions of someone like Larry Doby, the case could be made that it in ways actually honors all those who fought to integrate the game. In Jordan's case, one could argue that he elevated the popularity of the game to new heights, however that overlooks the impact of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird which arguably was bigger on that count. As for being the best Russell has more rings, Kareem has more MVPs and Points, and I don't hear any sentiment for retiring 6 or 33 (because it would be silly).

The ironic thing in all this was that I thought that Lebron James already honored his idol by wearing 23. Changing off that number actually seems to diminish that. Maybe that's why he puts forth this public request to retire 23 league wide to cover his desire to change which might have other reasons like a merchandising sales bump or maybe he intends to join a team with 23 already retired and is pre-empting the will you change your number discussion (just throwing that out there like a conspiracy theory).

Teams with 23 retired:
Chicago of course (Michael Jordan)
Boston (Frank Ramsey)
New Jersey (John Williamson)
Houston (Calvin Murphy)
oh, and the Atlanta Hawks (Lou Hudson)

So using the same quality of logic that Lebron would employ Atlanta is now on the short list of likely Lebron destination (jk).
However I guess teams with 6 retired would already be off the list:
Boston (Bill Russell)
Philadelphia (Julius Erving)
Phoenix (Walter Davis)
Orlando (the Fans)
Sacramento (the Fans)

[MaceCase]

That's the only reason we let Mario go.

[HoopsGuru25]

Not that he's not the best player in the NBA(he is)-but this guy is such an obvious attention whore. I don't see the point in announcing this(or the slam dunk thing)on a live broadcast. I don't mind the chalk thing as much...but I do get a kick out of his new routine of going up and giving advice to one particular young player after every game now. It's like he thinks he's an official overseer of the NBA. Jordan is also one of the all-time great **** in sports history as well so it's fitting.

[evildallas]

I am already troubled by the Media latching on to this idea by asking every player currently wearing 23 if they would be willing to give it up. What's a young player supposed to say in that situation? If they answer like I did they risk being portrayed as either disrespect to a great player or selfish. If they say they don't mind they get portrayed as endorsing the idea.