Never knew showtime WAS THIS DAMN GOOD

[ock]

One of the few times in my life I shed tears:

Magic announcing he was HIV+.

Many years later... damn, the dude is still alive! Hell yeah, Magic!
(HIV was nearly a death sentence not so long ago)

[Speedlot]

One of the few times in my life I shed tears:

Magic announcing he was HIV+.

Many years later... damn, the dude is still alive! Hell yeah, Magic!
(HIV was nearly a death sentence not so long ago)

My elementary school principal was giving my 5th grade class a little speech in Sex Education...

"You Kids see that Magic Johnson? He has HIV and is gonna die in 10 years....."

Guess who's alive now, and who's dead? -_- oh the irony Mr. Palogalo

[Father Time]

Magic's passing in that vid is absolutely insane.

[Pablo Escobar]

I think Kareem is the greatest to play the game it was just poetry in motion that skyhook was deadly pretty sure he could suit up for 10-15 mpg and still school these centers today

[Wavy Q]

I think Kareem is the greatest to play the game it was just poetry in motion that skyhook was deadly pretty sure he could suit up for 10-15 mpg and still school these centers today

This is kind of a harsh statement, but the dude has leukemia, i don't think he'd last 2 seconds out there anymore >.>

[Slava]

I wonder why people are taking a pot shot at Jordan in this thread. Magic and Bird played with more than one hall of famers over their whole careers and Jordan had Scottie and Rodman who wasn't much on the offensive end anyways.

Totally different players yet could you imagine Jordan playing with Cap in his early years? He could have ended up with 10 rings.

[ALL HAIL]

Not taking shots at Jordan at all.

I worshipped Jordan growing up. I still consider him to be the most poetic athlete ever.

However, in my objective opinion, Magic was by far the easiest to play with.

Who do I think is a better fit next to scorers like Worthy, Scott, and Kareem? Magic all day.

Magic is better to me because his presence automatically increases the play of others ...

... I love Jordan but you can't say that about him ... Jordan was a winner, but he was uber selfish.

The team had to be built around his need to shoot 30 times a game much like Iverson.

With Magic, you had a player who'd do whatever is needed to help the team win.

Magic would shoot 5 times but grab 12 boards and dish out 15 dimes if it translated to a win.

Magic was a sacrificer, leader, and ultimate team player.

Jordan was a "Superman," a player who played the game knowing that he had superhuman powers. Unfortunately, this super human ability ultimately made him selfish (albeit a winner).

It's easy to see Jordan as the best ever. It takes a much keener eye to see the multitude of intangibles that Magic brings to the table in conversation of best ever.

Note: If Kwame Brown had played with Magic his rookie year he would be a much better player now as opposed to playing with Jordan who destroyed the kid's will (obviously Jordan is not completely to blame --but you get it).

[Gek]

for sure g=k

(i hope that honey was a typo for homey unless ur a girl) lol

[ALL HAIL]

Again not trying to take shots at Jordan, simply trying to differentiate between the team game of Magic Johnson and the more selfish game of Michael Jordan, who in my opinion was more difficult to play with.

Here are a few quotes from Jordan:

Exhibit A -- "I had a conversation with Tex Winter, an unbelievable [assistant] coach, one time after scoring about 20 points in a row to win the game. Tex reminded me, "There's No I in team." I looked back at Tex and I said, "There's an 'I' in 'W-I-N"

Exhibit B -- MJ to Kwame Brown after he called for a foul in practice:
"You **** flaming faqgot! You don’t get a foul call on a goddamn little touch foul, you **** faqgot. You don’t bring that faqgoty **** here. Get your goddamn ass back on the floor and play. I don’t want to hear that **** **** out of you again. Get your ass back and play, you faqgot!"

Exhibit C -- "You're an idiot. You've screwed up every play we ever ran. You're too stupid to even remember the plays. We ought to get rid of you." - Michael to Horace Grant

Now before you say that Jordan is merely pushing his teammates, think about the manner in which Magic Johnson pushed his teammates.

Anyone remember Vlade Divac's rookie year? Vlade couldn't even speak English and was very raw on the court. Magic took this big, talented, yet raw player in Divac and supported him all season to the point that he eventually became really good toward the end of his rookie year.

Juxtapose Magic's support and encouragement of Divac against Jordan's beratement and humiliation of Kwame Brown and Stacey King (both equally as talented as young Vlade):

"You ever hear of a guy, six-eleven maybe and two hundred sixty pounds, a guy big and fat like that and he can't get but two rebounds, if that many, running all over the damn court and he gets two rebounds? Big guy like that and he gets one rebound. Can't even stick his ass into people and get more than that...Big, fat, fat guy. One rebound in three games. Power forward. Maybe they should call it powerless forward." - Michael ripping Stacey King a new one

I love to watch Michael Jordan and his game was beautiful artistry, however if I had a choice to start a team with "Superman" Jordan ("able to leap tall buildings in a single bound") or the unselfish, team oriented, "make others better" Magic ...

... the decision is really easy for me.

[Slava]

Jordan is a product of the system he began in. He played on lame ass Bulls teams until he win his first and I'm pretty sure if he had started with Kareem, Worthy and Scott his career would have been much different too.

You can talk as much about his selfishness and stuff but you don't 3 peat twice and be dominant in every single game without being the greatest of all time.

Is Magic the nicer guy, yeah and he is one of my favorites too but Jordan had a method to his madness and it translated to multiple rings.

Re: Kwame, he could have played with God at PG and still sucked.

[Sedale Threatt]

Jordan wasn't selfish, not any more than Kobe is. To me, truly selfish is not caring at all about team results as long as individual results are there. I.E., Dominique Wilkins being able to tell you exactly how many points he had at any given point in a game, as per Doc Rivers.

Jordan and Kobe both wanted/want to win about as badly as anybody in history. Granted, they want to do it in a way that enhanced their legacies, but you can probably say the same thing about almost everybody outside of a handful of players.

Who would have been more fun, and easier, to play with? Magic, absolutely no question.

But a great, great point about "making others better" from Charles Barkley: "Magic got to make Kareem and James Worthy Better. Michael got to make Scottie Pippen better. I got to make Shelton Jones better."

Anybody who watched Magic carry a good but hardly great Lakers team to the Finals in 91 knows Magic had that undefinable quality. But at the same time, there's a lot of wisdom to Chuck's statement.

[TruSkool]

i never though jordan was selfish either. for god sake, the 'jordan rules' were made for him. it only makes OBVIOUS SENSE that other players would be open as defense would solely focus on MJ, hence, making his team better.
lets be real. he wasnt selfish, he was just that good