Although he's my favorite player, I wouldn't do it. It's not possible because other players have worn that number before Jordan and players are wearing it today because of him. It would be pretty bad if the league forced everybody currently wearing #23 to choose a new number.
Wow the hostllity toward Jordan's legacy is unprecedented on this board. Those shout-outs to Mikan, Dr J, Wilt, Russell are fine and maybe correct in some ways but I was just making the case that Jordan elevated the NBA - the game, the brand to the stratosphere in which it currently resides. There is no doubt many legends came before Michael but none had the impact as he did. It would be foolish to say X player should receive the recognition as MJ (Sorry Dr J). No one has ever been like Mike and no one will ever be. All the names thrown around in this thread are great legends of the game and deserve the utmost respect and praise but the fact is, Jordan put the NBA on the global map. I am talking international audiences, worlwide marketing of the league and the NBA not just Jordan and Nike. Even if you only consider what he did for his own interest and Nike, still he promoted the league to new markets and people who would never pick up a basketball otherwise. Basketball and a Jordan are synonymous, ask anyone around the world about basketball and the word Jordan will quickly come to their lips. He single-handedly created the sports athlete-celebrity. Tiger owes him, Lebron owes him, Kobe owes him. Every athelete aspiring to become a gobal icon owes it to MJ for creating a marketable platform. I am not speaking of his hype but the actual aurora surrounding him and the millions of people fixated to his every move on and off the court. He is the greatest thing ever to happen to the NBA even the owners and commissioner of the league would tell you that in plain words.
First off, I will have to say No on the #23 issue.. But, Jordan did a helluva lot for the NBA.... The NBA was having some issues and they were also trying to expand there marketing at the same time. Some poeple say that MJ saved the NBA and Nike. If anyone remembers they were basically only 2 times that you would see on primetime TV on Sundays LA, Boston or Philly and if they did show any other team they were Eastern Conference teams. So with MJ coming to the NBA, people wanted to see him play and the NBA used that to their advantage to Market themselves. So with that Nike also piggy backed on this and did their Marketing thing with MJ. If you say MJ and Nike... Most of you will remember the commercials with him and Spike Lee "It must be the shoes..." So now you have a new ALL Sports Station coming on cable "ESPN" and they were doing any and everything to stay in business.. You should hear the stories from the original sportscaster that started out with them. Everyone wanted to see Jordan's dunks and ESPN was showing them around the hour and there ratings, along with the NBA's Marketing was sky rocketing and they have been on a roll every since then. Now this also had a negative affect with fundamental basketball, because every kid out there wanted to be on TV dunking on somebody like MJ did. They stop trying to be like Majic, Bird, etc... everybody wanted to be like the YOUNG MJ and not the older one that had a complete game. So No I don't agree with the jersey being retired, but MJ did more than what's being stated. T_Man
I'm totall on board for calling Michael Jordan the best basketball player ever. But the deification and hero-worship gets so over the top. He gets more than enough adulation, as is. There's no need to take it a step further.
^^^ This is exactly why it is such a bad idea. Do you really want to put the ONE MAN game as the symbol of the best basketball league in the world? BTW, maybe his number should be retired as the symbol of all those former-great-players-turned-into-horrible-GMs.
Yeah, no hate on Jordan from me, but if you were alive and watching b-ball in the 1970's, then: Viewership and revenue increase, 1985 versus 1975 >>> Viewership and revenue increase, 1995 versus 1985 What does that say? In terms of league viability and marketability, Jordan built his contributions on the shoulders of Dr. J, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. Those three built it almost from the ground up. (Am looking for the exact stats, to show the percentage increase into the 1980's, but am having trouble locating the numbers.)
Ph Michael Phelps has some ridiculously large hands. The size of "dinner plates". But swimming isn't a sport.
No kidding. I can't imagine a worse idea than "retiring" Jordan's number league wide. What a joke. I was watching his first league game yesterday (have some of those "classics" on my DVR) and you could see flashes of his potential, but he certainly didn't look like he was going to be a legend. The Dream looked far better and had much more of an impact in his first game. I'm supposed to place one above another? Above Bird? Magic? Dr. J? Oscar? Wilt? One could go on and on. Who's to say a better player won't get drafted next summer, or is playing already? Really, some people just have too much time on their hands.
No. His legacy is secure and warranted. There's just no compelling reason to retire his jersey league-wide.
No, the guy didn't die or do something extrodinarily brave etc....come on.....he was a great basketball player, but league wide. Perspective people, perspective. DD
“I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era. Without Julius Erving, David Thompson, Walter Davis, and Elgin Baylor, there would never have been a Michael Jordan. I evolved from them.” -Michael Jordan Who should we believe, Michael Jordan or ghettocheeze? Even ignoring Jordan's own shoutout to previous athletic swingmen on whom Jordan modeled his game, which immediately kills your claim, I take Mikan, Wilt/Russell, and Bird/Magic over Jordan in terms of impact. Mikan was the first superstar and cemented the notion that big is good in basketball, Wilt/Russell took the game to new levels and national attention, and Magic/Bird put the league back in national prominence after it had fallen off in the 1970's (the 1980 NBA Finals were shown on tape delay, for example). Jordan's contributions in this area were building on the work of others before him, not created by himself as you claim.
I don't think anyone is hostile towards Jordan's legacy or accomplishments. He did take the NBA to another level; but so did Mikan, Wilt, Russell, Oscar, Dr. J, Magic and Bird in their day. I dare say that down the road, another player will come along and raise the bar again. Will you want to retire every player's number that raises the NBA bar?
What for being great? NO. NO. NO. I would be more inclined to retire someone like Deke's number (just an example) for doing something truly great. All MJ did was play great, it's not enough. It's not like he went through the things Jackie Robinson did
Jordan's number should not be retired league wide. Why not retire Wilt Chamberlains number then? Jordan was the greatest guard to ever play the game (and that's because you can't compare big men to guards). Was he the most impactful player to ever play? Let's face it, his name was known all over the world and was a household name. More than Shaq, Kobe, or anyone, EVERYONE knew who Jordan was. And had Jordan stood up for people - for causes like Nike shoes or actually created something that gave back...i'd be all for cementing what he did by retiring his number. He did not do that. He gave some money, but he didn't do what many others before him did. He went into business instead. And that's fine, he's a basketball player, not a humanitarian. A competitor, not a anything more. And that's totally fine. But he didn't single handedly save the NBA. That really belongs to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and others. Jordan built on their success. He took their efforts to a new level. Truly, if anyone should be inducted into the hall of fame, it should be Nike and Gatorade for turning Jordan into the most marketed name in sports history.
No. That is asinine and ridiculous. Not only does it put him at God status, it presumes that there will not be a player better than him EVER! Well, the future is not here yet and if the NBA does not go bankrupt or lose its fanbase due to corruption there will be a player better than Jordan in the next 50 - 100 years. . . . and I will presume that number to be on the outskirts!! More like 15 years. Actually think, for a moment, if you will, about how many great players were playing in Jordan's era alone! . . Think about the rules of his time and the officiating. . . . Do players now play under the same rules that players played under in Jordan's era? . . . Now think about how superstars get treated by the refs vs. non superstars. . . . Where did Jordan rank among those superstars, even in then?. . . . Just as a side note, even Jordan admits that the athletes and players of today far exceed those of the past and even his generation. In my opinion, Jordan was the next evolution of the player and drove the standard higher. A new player will do the same and so on and so forth.
