Jordan’s mentality and settling the GOAT issue
MANILA, Philippines — Over the course of the eight episodes of "The Last Dance", we are either reminded or seeing up close for the very first time (by today’s generation at least) Michael Jordan’s ultra-competitive approach and win-at-all-costs mentality.
It might be shocking for some or even off-putting for others. For some, it is all right because it got the desired results. Nevertheless, you have to put all that in context.
You have to remember that Jordan was cut from his high school team and he had to prove himself to make that squad the following season. Mike also came from North Carolina where he played under a disciplined and regimented system under Dean Smith. He was also coming in as an Olympic gold medalist.
Jordan came into a bad team that would quit during games. Michael saw the team try and tank to win a better slot in the draft. Whether the freeze-out was real or not, Jordan experienced controversy early on, and that changed and fueled him. All these incidents and experiences gave shape to the competitive man.
And to think that he had it in his contract with Chicago that he could play pick-up basketball. That was definitely a love-of-the-game thing.
That attitude of giving it his all… it might have been tough on others, but that attitude was forged in fire. How many of his teammates charged right into the heart of the Detroit Pistons defense, took a pounding and a licking, but was still ticking. Scottie Pippen wilted. As did Horace Grant against the New York Knicks.
You could see that during the 1998 NBA Finals against Utah, it was Jordan who was the last man standing as his teammates were wilting under the pressure.
Jordan’s brush with mortality was the Orlando series in 1995. But that was just a couple of games and he was coming back after playing professional baseball for 18 months. There were moments where he exhibited his greatness such as sticking the game-winning shot against Atlanta and his double nickel game versus New York in his fifth game back late in the 1994-95 season. Yet, for the most part, he was imperious. He is 6-0 in the NBA Finals, with the second three-peat cementing his Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) status.
Of course, we’ve seen Kobe Bryant and LeBron James enter that conversation.
We must make it clear that I am a fan of Bryant and James. Yes, I am. I definitely think the two are in the Top 12 best in the NBA. But no way are they the GOAT. For good measure, Bill Russell is the ultimate winner and he has 11 NBA titles to his name, but no way is he the GOAT either. As is Wilt Chamberlain, who for all his individual greatness and talent, has only two titles to his name.
Chamberlain is perhaps reason or argument enough to say that James isn’t the GOAT. Two titles and great statistics and yet, a history of post-season futility.
Watching James crumble in Game Four of the 2018 Finals… there is no way this man is the Greatest of All Time.
We saw that with Kobe Bryant when they lost to the Boston Celtics in 2008.
During Chicago’s six title years, their record was 24-11. They lost by an average of 7.0 points.
Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers racked up a 23-15 record in the NBA Finals with five championships. In those 15 losses, the Lakers fell by an average of 12.5 points.
In James’ nine years in the NBA Finals, he came away a winner thrice. His teams are 18-31, and in those losses, his team averaged a 12.7-point deficit.
Bryant played one more finals than Michael and James, three more. And yet, how dominant were Jordan’s teams? They still more wins and fewer losses and a smaller losing margin.
Remember how Bryant was kind of petulant in the 2008 loss to Boston where he was passing the ball in disgust rather than firing away? And he wasn’t even on the floor in the final moments. Jordan was on the floor every time the game ended.
And it was the same for LeBron during Game Four of the 2018 Finals. Remember how all the panelists thought that he quit on his team. Charles Barkley and three other panelists said that they were all disappointed in James’ performance. How his body language showed and it affected his team. Okay, he was injured. But that injury was self-inflicted and that is never an excuse. It would have been easy for Jordan to quit on his team during the flu game of the 1997 NBA Finals. But he didn’t.
I’d love to keep the argument on a lateral basis. But think about it, in the NFL, John Elway is 2-5 in Super Bowl victories. And yet, even before Tom Brady became the GOAT, Joe Montana was considered the best NFL quarterback ever. Okay, I just needed to sneak that it.
NBA-wise, think about this. Jerry West is 1-8 in the NBA Finals. His Lakers teammate, Elgin Baylor, is 0-7. The rings and how your performed in the finals are the barometer.
Have you ever seen Mike with bad body language? Let alone quit on his team?
When Michael was winning scoring titles, the criticism was he hadn’t won the big one — an NBA championship. He was acknowledged as the game’s best player when in 1988 he came away with the MVP plum, the Defensive Player of the Year Award, the scoring title, and a slot on the Mythical Five first team. Hakeem Olajuwon repeated that feat in 1994, but he also won the title that year.
Mike was NBA Finals MVP six times. Kobe, twice, and LeBron, thrice.
Bryant and James are two of the best ever to play basketball. In the NBA, they are somewhere in people’s Top Five or Top 10 or 12.
But Mike... is in a class of his own.
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