It shouldn't be particularly contentious that Pippen and Rodman were better defenders than Jordan was.Based on what? Your opinion?
Jordan didn't play for the wizzards to be great again. His goal was to help them make the playoffs which is what he said. At the time he was also looking to invest in an NBA team.
But in today's NBA you have teams with multiple superstars ring chasing. That leaves ove half the league with no real superstars. Good players getting shots that make them Allstars and Allstars being crowned Superstars.
Not sure anyone is in the hall of fame for losing in the finals the most though. lol
Jordan losing to the Dynasty Celtics is different than Lebron losing to the Dynasty spurs or Warriors. Jordan was young and had never made the finals yet. Lebron was in arguably the worst conference in the last 30 years and made it to the finals before he was ready to win. It was only his second year making the playoffs. After Jordan won the Bulls had targets on their back and they never lost in the Finals. They became a dynasty and prevented so many great players from winning a championship. Before Lebron players chased rings at the end of their careers or not at all. Lebron did it before his prime. He was 25 when he signed with Miami. Also the are no indications that Jordan had control of the roster. Lebron hurt his career in doing so. Lebron acted like a spoiled kid who deserved more than what he earned and he is still like that until today. That's why he is not the GOAT. Lebron always joined other great players, they never came to him. In my opinion Lebron takes too much air out of the offense and makes people stand around than rely on his teammates in a structured game plan. This is why he gets the players he wants and the coaches he wants.
The problem I have with people criticizing Lebron (and Durant too for that matter) for ring chasing is not recognizing it as a symptom of a rings obsessed NBA culture. Ring counting, often without any context, is often a major part (sometimes even the main part) of what a player's legacy is. Not saying this is you, but for the fans who obsess over how many rings players have then criticizing players for putting themselves in easier situations to win rings can't have it both ways. I was hoping people would think harder about how ludicrous ring culture is after Durant signed with the Warriors, but it lives on.
We are comparing Lebron and Jordan. I agree players get drafted into more advantageous places than others. Jordan Got drafted by a bad team and went through tough loses and learned how to be the best. He beat great championship calibre teams but had to learn how to lose first. Lebron got drafted in a similar situation but because he was Cleveland's chosen one he got preferential treatment which hurt his career early on and continued up until today. People fail to see what a player goes through to become great. Lebron for what its worth is an all time great player. It's just he had the opportunity to work the system like no other before him and managed to skip the part on becoming great enough to manage it as a leader on his own team. All the greats were part of a Dynasty as in continued success for years. For Lebron as soon as it was not financially good or he couldn't stack the deck anymore he would leave his team to go somewhere else where they were willing to bow to him and stack a team for him. It happened in Miami, not enough stacking back in Cleveland, and a pretty bad attempt in LA, but they still tried. I still remember Lebron coming out in the media and saying we need to add in order to beat Golden State. In that off season rumors were swirling around about how he wanted Carmelo Anthony. What did Golden State do, they added KD. My comparisons have nothing to do with rings. Lebron could finish with more than Jordan but in my books he was not as great as Jordan. Jordan was the most exciting player to every watch play basketball and was the most dominant. Passing stats at the end of your career only makes you seem better to people who only look at stats. For people who watch basketball there is no comparison.
LeBron was actually hurt by being so good at such a young age. He joined the worst team in the league, but made such a substantial immediate impact that the Cavs became too good too quickly to acquire any other high picks. He should have been more like MJ: be not as good at basketball so your team can stock up and draft another all star and another HOFer.
I actually agree that Lebron's situation wasn't that much worse than MJ's. For Lebron, I think him being in a harder situation is much more pronounced when compared to Kobe, which was a long held debate for awhile, but now the general consensus is Kobe is at minimum a tier below Lebron and MJ.
When it comes to scoring Jordan was definitely better. Lebron passing him is more a function of his longevity than actually being a better scorer than MJ. I chose Lebron in spite of how they compare as scorers, not because of.
One of the biggest ironies of him leaving Cleveland for Miami is that led to the Cavs completely bottoming out and being able to use their ensuing draft capital to give Lebron a much better supporting cast in his 2nd stint than his first. Had he stayed with Cleveland in 2010 there's a chance he never gets the supporting cast needed to win a title there.
I had a well thought out rebuttal but it got deleted due to hitting the back button on my mouse.
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