Is MJ one of the top 5 players of all time?

Is there even an argument over whether or not he is the single best player of all time?

 

if you don't have jordan as the best player all time based off accomplishments alone, you need a cat scan. sorry, but this thread was somewhat pointless.

 

Memo to self: Never order a taco in a Chinese restaurant.

...although Michael Jordan isn't the clear cut #1 player of all time. A very strong case can be made for The Stilt based on his stats alone...

 

There certainly is. Wilt Chamberlain is the best player of all time. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a good argument for being a better player than Jordan, as does Bill Russell. Jordan is almost certainly the best guard of all time though.

 

Wilt Chamberlain is not the best player of all time, just because he played in an era where he could score 50 ppg doesn't mean he's the best player of all time. Imagine if Olajuwon played in Wilt's era!

 

Of course, comparing Jordan and Chamberlain is like comparing Joe DiMaggio and Roger Clemens...two different positions in two different eras.

Chamberlain is the best center of all time, Jordan is the best guard of all time, and the best forward of all time is a toss up between Karl Malone, Elgin Baylor, and Larry Bird...

 

Good point on your first point. The second is less certain. And when Russ is thrown into the mix, then Wilt is in question.

How do we quantify 'best...of all time'? I cannot tho I am sage.

 

Did Jordan ever average 50 points a game for an entire season? Did Jordan average 30-20 for his career?

Only people who ignore history think that Jordan is undoubtedly the best player in history. See the web site below that refutes pretty much every argument that Jordan is...

http://airjudden2.tripod.com/jordan/

 

listen, if you think chamberlain would have avg'd 50ppg during jordan's era or even the current one, you're delusional.
no one would avg 30-20 either, times change. yes there is an arguement that he is not the best of all time -- but if you don't have him top3 at least, you know nothing about basketball.
as I said, I feel off accomplishments alone he's #1.

if you're going to say bill russell is #1 based of winning, okay...sure knock yourself out -- he had MUCH better teams.

 

I can think of many reasons Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50 ppg during a season, and his "era" is not one of them.

It's hard to understand the significance of averaging 50 points per game. That was the season that Wilt scored 100 in a game. Let's say that he scored the exact same number of points in every other game, be it 30, 35, or 45. That 100 point game would raise his season average by less than 1. If he scored 45 points in 81 games and 100 in the 82nd, he would end up with a scoring average of 45.7.

In that 61-62 season, he had games of 78 and 73 points. He scored 50 points 45 times that season. How many times does a player score 50 points in a game? Once a season if he's lucky.

Oh yeah, he also averaged 25 rebounds per game that year, also.

 

He did win 6 championships, multiple MVPs (finals or otherwise), etc.

I think that guy is kind of a Jordan hater.

Can't play with 95 percent of pgs? Can't play with other scorers? Didn't Pippen put up close to 20 a game regurlarly with Jordan?

Couldn't turn around the Wizards? I think that's pretty tenuous. Was he supposed to win the Wizards a championship at age 39?

I can't see how anyone would put Larry Bird over him. I think a case can be made for Wilt (different era) or Magic (personal opinion) but if I had to pick one best ever I would have to pick him.

I think if the Celtics and Bulls made a Larry-MJ trade in 1986, the Celtics would have gone on to win many more championships. Larry's a great player and one of the best ever (top 5 or 10) but I don't think he's better than MJ.

Believe or not i don't care-
I met Jerry West once in Westwood in 1994 (?) at a McDonalds while getting breakfast. I asked him who the best ever was and he said MJ without a doubt. Brought up the Magic/Wilt arguments etc - and he said something like "not even close" (I forget exact words). Also brought up Ed O' Bannon but he just laughed.

 

So, you changed from without a doubt the best to without a doubt the top 3? Good for you!

I don't think anybody can say any single player as "without a doubt the best of all time." How can you compare players from different eras?

 

I am a firm believer that you can't compare/contrast players playing different positions, with radically different roles.

Therefore, if we are to take into consideration that there are five -- and at the least three -- different positions on the court at all times, it would probably be more accurate to say that MJ, as a guard, was one of the top three or five players of all times.

Or, if you prefer, you could just say that he was the best guard of all time, but even then some would argue that Magic was better or that it isn't fair to compare his numbers to MJ since they both had a different role to play on their respective teams.

So, it is somewhat complicated, but I will say that MJ was by far the most dominant guard in NBA history: he did it better than anyone else on both ends of the court.

I would say he's top three.

 

This site pretty much presents sophomoric arguments as to why MJ is the 5th best player in NBA history, surprised the author didn't mention his girlfriends and his penchant for gambling as a reason why he wasn't the best BB player ever. I'll go with ESPN who voted Michael Jordan the greatest athlete of the 20th century or SI who voted MJ the greatest basketball player ever. Want another reason MJ was the best, ask his peers like Magic Johnson who said of Michael, "There is Michael Jordan and there are the rest of us", among his peers he is acknowledged as the greatest ever.

This site is a pretty weak argument against Michael and history supports MJ as the greatest ever. You also know what is enough for me, I still have never seen a player that had the hang time MJ had, he seemed to literally fly through the air in his hay day.

 

my words were initially a bit strong, either way, I still personally feel he's the best. sue me.

 

i like the guy who put him not even in the top 10...

 

There's no doubt Jordan is at least a top three all-time guard.

I will however say that he is fortunate to not have had to play his entire career in the Western Conference. The East may have been consistently deeper top-to-bottom, but the top 5-6 elites out West were almost always monsters.

 

G.O.A.T

 

I didnt think anyone would even consider MJ not to be in the top 5...