Ah yes, his Airness.
Michael Jordan has the uncanny ability to spawn donzens of prodigy, all of which missed the damn point. The point is not in his dunkiness, nor is it in his shotmaking, nor is it in his success as a player. Many, many players have been very successful individually or been able to dunk in spectacular fashion.
A non-comprehensive list includes:
Ron Harper
Harold Miner
Steve Francis
Jerry Stackhouse
Penny Hardaway
Grant Hill
Tracy McGrady
Vince Carter
Kobe Bryant
Lebron James
Wow, you may say to yourself, that's a pretty fucking distinguished list. As a quick aside, the players on that list have on main thing in common, besides dunkiness; a history of knee and back problems. Check the number of players on that list that have those problems.
4 players have avoided those career cripplers: Kobe, LeBron, Franchise, and Miner.
Let's head down that non-injury list in reverse order. Career stats courtesy of www.bullz-eye.com and www.basketball-reference.com.
MJ
30.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 5.3 apg, 2.4 spg, 0.8 bpg, .497 FG%, .327 3P%, .835 FT%
Harold Miner 
Career stats: 9.0 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 1.2 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.1 bpg, .460 FG%, .310 3P%, .785 FT%
Before we discuss this man's career, I will recount an anectode.
I was searching for a picture of Miner's and was confused when I didn't find any on Google. I later realized that I had been typing his name as "Minor," simply because I had no idea it was spelled differently. That's illustrative.
Miner was a big dunker our of USC, drafter by the Heat at #12 in 1992. The first to recieve NJ hype, he quickly sucked tremendously. He did have the same dunkiness as advertised (2-time Slam Dunk Champion) but he didn't have enough skillsiness. Miner probably avoided the NJ knee/back problems because of the sympathy of the Basketball Gods (picture it as the Greek pantheon). The Gods didn't want to make someone that sucked that hard suffer unduly through his lengthy retirement. Nice of them.
Steve Francis
19.0 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 6.3 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.4 bpg, .430 FG%, .340 3P%, .797 FT%
Here Franchise, as he is bizzarrely known, is shown displaying his dunkiness. His dunkiness never has and never will be question, what has been in question is his assistiness. Franchise seems to have a desperate rath against basketballs, pounding them into the ground for up to 20 seconds before grudgingly launching his shot a the basket. Alas, his quest to deflate every basketball in the league has been a series of failures: not once has a ball burst under his repetitive pounding.
His skillz as a player are legit, but he's too small to play the 2, and has none of the necessary passing skills (or perhaps willingness) to play the 1. He's now joined a kindred spirit in Stephon Marbury, a move that will seal his fate as a dunky guard who will never truly carry a team on his own. Has absolutely none of the required Jordan storyline.
Lebron James
26.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 6.6 apg, 1.8 spg, 0.7 bpg, .458 FG%, .330 3P%, .746 FT%
Upon leaving high school in 2003, Lebron reignited the NJ debate and set the world aflame like a teenage Prometheus. He has dunkiness, he has skillsiness, and he has some of the "I don't want this coach"iness that MJ displayed with Doug Collins in his youth.
Now that LBJ has his guy, Mike Brown, in town, he's under pressure to make MVPs happen. Finishing a confusing 4th in balloting this season after destroying the league like no-one other than Kobe, LBJ has the best chance of anyone to fulfill the NJ prophecy. Although he is straight up atrocious on D, his offensive skillsiness is awesome, and he has a willingness to pass the ball. A lot.
Should he ever have a second banana worthy of carrying his jock (sorry Larry Hughes, you aren't the guy), LBJ could make significant strides towards mashing MJ and Magic.
Kobe Bryant
23.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 4.5 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.6 bpg, .451 FG%, .336 3P%, .834 FT%
At first glance, his statistics are not so spectac. In fact, Franchise is superior in 2 of the 3 major categories.
Anyone who would argue Franchise as the superior player is fucking retarded.
Glad I got that out of the way. Kobe is not the NJ. He is the FK, the first Kobe. He definitely has the dunkiness, the success, and the Philsiness of MJ, but he went and fucked up the narrative. It's supposed to go that the player moves from selfish gunner to good teamate after he gets his defining second banana, then wins all of his championships with that player. Kobe went and did the opposite, even though his narrative is still in effect: he had Shaq Diesel in town to 3-peat and then ran him out 2 years and one Finals loss later.
Then came Kobe's gunner phase, which probably culminated with his 35(!) point per game season this past year, and peaked with his 81(!) and 62(!) point games against the Raptors and Mavericks(!), respectively. You may notice a lot of (!) in that last sentence. That's because what Kobe did was out of this world.
Playoffs Kobe morphed into a mid-career MJ, sharing the ball with his teammates and letting them handle some of the load on the offensive end. The Lakers blew a 3-1 series lead to Phoenix in the first round, but the blame for that collapse has to fall largely on the shoulders of his teammates. The series exposed the Laker's susceptibility to missing shots within 5 inches of the basket, led by such luminaries as Kwame Brown.
Which Kobe we will see next season depends on the job Mitch Kupchak (or hopefully Kiki Vanderweghe) does in the offseason. If Kupcherweghe acquires a shooted and someone not clinically retarded to play the post, the Lakers could see passy Kobe. If Kupcherweghe fails in that quest, shooty Kobe will once again destroy the league and give opposing coaches nightmares.
No comments:
Post a Comment