A
big debate in the circle of the NBA fans is which one of the players is
the greatest of all time. Is it Michael Jordan or is it LeBron James?
Now, to throw a big wrench into the debate, could it be a completely
different player that is not even mentioned in most circles, like Magic
Johnson or Shaq? Well, here is some insight to help you form a better
opinion on which player is the best in the NBA of all time.
Michael Jordan
At the time that Jordan came out of North Carolina
the Chicago Bulls were a team that was not doing well. The franchise
had lost a ton of games and actually were a team that was considered an
easy win for almost every team in the league at the time. When Jordan
first came out to the draft he was one player that did not have any
supporting cast to help him out.
Jordan would arrive in Chicago and was actually facing a culture for
the team that was used to losing and expected to lose. It was at that
time that the Bulls culture would have to take a stark turn to avoid
losing the games. Well the expected air of losing was quickly removed
with the arrival of Jordan and his never say die type of attitude.
The Bulls actually used Jordan to help develop the players around him.
For example, Scottie Pippen was not expected to be as good of a player
as what he ended up being. The reason that he improved to the level
that he reached, was from the play of Jordan who was taking the ball
into the lane and kicking it when needed. This is also true with the
development of John Paxson who was one player who Jordan would kick the
ball to for getting the open looks from behind the line.
In addition to making the players better around him, Jordan had to deal
with lax rules. Compared to the rules that are in place today of
seemingly looking at the shooter wrong gets a foul, Jordan had to deal
with chops on his arms and hands. In fact, there have been rumors that
the Detroit Pistons were actively trying to hurt Jordan to get him out
of the playoffs during the battle between the two great teams.
LeBron James
King James, as a lot of people refer to him as, came
into the league to his hometown area of Cleveland. Now, the Cavaliers
had been a team that had been languishing for some time and was not a
team that had the winning culture, much like the Bulls. The difference
was the Cavaliers had a good group of players already on the roster and
that was going to definitely be a plus.
James would come out into the NBA draft after only 1 year in college.
That one year was more of a polishing type of year which would lead to
him coming out without as much time in college. With so little time in
the college game it meant that James would have to adjust on the fly to
the level of play that is seen in the NBA. At the same time, though,
James had a good supporting cast around him in some of the players.
One big difference between James and Jordan is the fact that unlike
Jordan drawing a lot of defenders and kicking the ball out, James would
take the shot. In some cases the ball would fall, but in others it did
not fall and for some fans that disenfranchised him to the fans when he
would appear to be pushing the ball when he should not have been
pushing it so hard.
Picking between James and Jordan or even Johnson for the best player of
all time is a challenge. However, one thing that has become fairly
obvious to most people is the fact that it seems to be generational as
to who they consider the best player. Some people who have been fans
back in the 60’s and 70’s would consider the best player to be Wilt
Chamberlain, but others think it is James. Now, for the newest player
of all time it is being debated who is the best player of all time, but
if history holds true it will be a new debate based off of the
generation of incoming new players and no matter what it will all come
down to the NBA picks in the draft as to who is going to have the best chance to win.