Basketball fanatics have been arguing for years as to who the ‘˜Greatest of all Time’ is. Names like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson are always thrown into the mix. However, the one player who redefined success on the hardwood was Michael Jeffrey Jordan
The question that plagues every sport is “Who is the best ever?” Critics and fans crave to find out the one individual who achieved most success in that sport. Debates go on for ever discussing who excelled and to what extent.
Basketball fanatics have been arguing for years as to who the ‘Greatest of all Time’ is. Names like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson are always thrown into the mix. However, the one player who redefined success on the hardwood was Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
To compare great ballers, a player’s performance during his era is the best benchmark. Jordan won 6 championships and won the regular season MVP award 5 times. He was also included in 10 all-NBA first teams and 9 all-defensive first teams over the span of his career. If that wasn’t enough to substantiate his spot as the greatest, Jordan clinched 10 scoring titles and had an impeccable career average of 30.1 points per game.
His best known performances are numerous. Some of them are, the 63-point game against the ’86 Celtics at the Boston TD Garden, the game winner in the ’89 playoffs, the ’92 NBA finals ‘shrug game’ in which Jordan buried six first-half three pointers and scored 35 first half points, Game 5 of the ’97 NBA finals ‘flu game’ where he scored 38 points, including the winning three pointer with 25 seconds to go, this despite being down with severe flu, Game 6 of the ’98 finals where he stole the ball from Karl Malone and went on to drain a free-throw line jump shot to close the finals.
No Athlete in the history of any sport has ever outgrown the sport the way Jordan did. He took basketball beyond borders. His ‘Air Jordan’ line of merchandise sky-rocketed ‘Nike’ into the global giant that it is today.
Jordan, a lanky kid out of the University of North Carolina, in his early days, was considered all swag and no class. But with his hard work, undying spirit for the game and an uncontrollable urge to win, the results were there for everyone to see. HE became MICHAEL ‘Air’ JORDAN a.k.a ‘His Royal Airness’. Like Magic Johnson would put it, his effort made him great but it was his abilities that made him ‘Air’ Jordan. Genetics could have been his greatest gift but his efforts determined the phenomenon that he is today.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – MICHAEL JORDAN
