bondom34 wrote:MisterHibachi wrote:Question: how many people did not see Jordan live, or see enough games to understand him as a player? And by this I don't mean watching Jordan as a young kid, but rather as someone who understands basketball.
Let me rephrase: how many people understand Jordan's game? Or do not understand his game.
I'm 28, don't really follow the NBA nearly as much til maybe 5-10 years ago.
I'm a bit younger than you, but in the same position. Started watching around 07, so did not see Jordan.
I've been toying with an idea and wanted to gauge interest. I don't know if its just me, but it seems whenever Jordan is talked about on this board (including the general NBA board), there is barely any discussion about his actual game. He's essentially boiled down to narrative, will, and emotion and sometimes stats. I've been here over a year, and I haven't learned a single thing about Jordan that I couldn't find on bb-ref, whereas I've learned tons about other players, even players way older than Jordan himself.
I don't know how many other posters are in the same position as me, so this is why I posed the question.
My idea was, since we had player threads for essentially every star in the league, let's create one for Jordan. We'll pool all available game footage of Jordan, and collectively watch it. Maybe a game a week or something, and do for him what we do for other players who we have created threads for. For LeBron, the thread I frequent the most, we pretty much break down his game, how he's playing that particular night, how's decision making, his shooting, energy level, etc etc. I think it will be very helpful and instructive if we were do something like that for Jordan. Maybe pick a season, perhaps 88 or 91, because those are probably his most exciting seasons, and go through each available game, track his progression through the season and actually bring him back to earth and make him a basketball player again.
There was a thread recently about which stars' basketball legacies will be forgotten 20 years from now. Jordan came to my mind (controversial I know). But a lot of people who I discuss basketball with in real life swear Jordan is the goat but haven't seen a single game of his. So maybe, Jordan's actual basketball legacy, that being his tendencies and strengths/weaknesses on the court, already is being lost.
Now this is just an idea, so feel free to let me know if you think its stupid. Or if you are interested. If there is enough interest, I'll create a thread to invite everyone to link every game of his they have access to. I won't get around to watching those games consistently until at least April, but that's probably for the better because of the top 100 project dominating the PC board (mods probably don't want two projects on at the same time) and general busyness of everyone's schedule. Playoff time would be a decent time to start with the reduced number of NBA games, or maybe summer.
Anyways, thoughts? comments?
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