On to the Next One..............NOT SO FAST!!

You know I have heard for years many players, coaches, sports writers, and everyone else trying to find the "next Michael Jordan."  I heard last week even Scottie Pippen getting on the bandwagon and being silly enough to predict that one day that LeBron James will be even better than Jordan. 

Let me say this.  There will NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER be another Michael Jordan.  There will never be anyone like him. There will never be anyone who plays like him.  There will never be anyone who has the mass appeal that he had and there will NEVER be anyone who was as beautiful and explosive to watch as Michael Jordan.  And here is the reason why..............in my opinion.

Before there was a Michael Jordan in the league there was no one looking for a Michael Jordan.  Michael Jordan is so important to the game of basketball that his impact can never be measured and therefore it can never be matched. 

Kobe Bryant is a great player.  But the thing about Kobe is that he came into the league TRYING to be the next Michael Jordan.  One of the unmentionables that made Jordan great is the fact that he came into the league trying to be Michael Jordan.  AND Michael was very charming and loved by the media.  Kobe Bryant had a ego that would but Donald Trump to shame. 

LeBron James is a great player.........BUT he left his team to go and seek out a Championship.  That is completely UN JORDAN LIKE.  Michael Jordan stayed with the BULLS his entire basketball playing career.  He was tenacious with The Chicago Bulls until he persevered and brought 6 championships to Chicago.

I was watching 30 for 30 on ESPN and the program featured an in depth expose' of Michael Jordan when he played baseball.  For many of us who live in Chicago the baseball era of Michael Jordan was a very dark time in BULLS history.  To be honest all I knew is that MJ left and later he came back..................no questions asked.  

However after watching the program I realized that MJ left to deal with the pain of his father being killed.  You know at that time I was still very young.  And to be honest I felt that because he had soooooooooo much money that the money made the pain less.  But what did I know?  As I am now more mature I see that MJ was only 32 years old when his father died.  Now because Jordan was older than me I didn't really understand how extremely young 32 is.

Jordan spoke on the documentary and said that He and his father had spoken many years about the prospect of MJ playing baseball professionally.  Of course non of us knew this.  Michael left basketball because at the time he could no face basketball without his dad.  I had never thought of that.  

As I watched the documentary I saw that MJ's basketball popularity had caused the nation to focus on a small double ball club.  Ticket sales went up.  Sports writers were paid more money to get quotes from Jordan.  Jordan's hitting coach spoke of how Jordan didn't have a good swing when he first got to baseball.  But Jordan worked tirelessly day and night and night and day to improve his swing.  That doesn't surprise me at all.  As time went on Jordan began to hit home runs and drive in runs.  

What stopped Jordan's baseball career was the 1995 players strike. Jordan decided that he would go back to basketball.

Jordan left basketball and for two years there was a chance for other basketball clubs to win a championship.  (Houston Rockets were able to capitalize- you're welcome Hakeem Olajuwon).  But the minute Jordan came back after NOT PLAYING BASKETBALL FOR 2 YEARS..........MJ came back and picked up where he left off. 3 more Chicago BULLS Championships.

Something else that I would like to draw your attention to.  Before there was a Michael Jordan in the league................there was not a player in the NBA or for all of Sports for that matter who made more money from endorsements than they did with their salary from the NBA.  MJ took the sport of basketball to a worldwide popularity.  Basketball is now second in the world of sports only to soccer.  The likes of Kobe and LeBron enjoy worldwide fame because of the path the MJ paved for them.  Kobe and LeBron enjoy multi-million dollar endoresement deals because of the popularity and charm of Joran.  NBA players were not receiving THIS level of endorsements.

So yes LeBron is a great player.  Yes Kobe is a great player and yes even D.Rose is a great player.  BUT..........they are coming into the league in a post Jordan world.  And they should just enjoy the basketball gods have in store for them. 

But there is no one who compares to Jordan.  Jordan made impossibly beautiful plays because it was in him to make them.  D.Rose, Kobe, and LeBron make great plays because they have watched Jordan make great plays and have worked their games to imitate Jordan's great plays.  

Now maybe I am biased because I am from Chicago.  But I now understand that Jordan's greatness cannot be measured and I am tired of people trying to measure it.

When there is a next Jordan...............no one will have to convince us of it............it will be apparent.