Michael Jordan is overrated. This is not to say that he isn.t one of the greatest of al time because he is, but it is to say that he isn.t the greatest of them all. Based on all the hype he receives you would think that he was the greatest athlete of all time in every sport in the entire history of the world.
Let.s compare Michael Jordan to other players in the NBA.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a player who has a more complete body of work than Michael Jordan. He is widely considered the greatest college basketball player of all time (Bill Walton would be 2nd.) While
at UCLA he lead the Bruins to 3 championships in 3 seasons and during that time UCLA won 88 games in a row. In the NBA he won 6 championships and had 9 NBA Finals appearances. He also played in 19 all-star games. He holds many NBA records such as most point, most rebounds, most games, etc. Some people may say that Abdul-Jabbar was great because he played a long time. No he played along time because he was great.
Wilt Chamberlain, was a career double-double at 30 points per game and 23 rebounds per game. In 1963 he averaged over 50 point per game, and scored 100 points in a single game. Because of him the dimensions of the court itself were changed (by widening the key.) He still holds many records.
Bill Russell won 11 championships with the Boston Celtics, which is 5 more than Michael Jordan.s six. With the Celtics Russell won 8 championships in a row from 1959 to 1966.
Magic Johnson is career double-double with 19.7 points per game and 11 apg and is the NBA.s all time leader in triple-doubles. He is one player who is tough to compare to Michael Jordan because the two players had different roles on the basketball court. Johnson was
a point guard and distributed the basketball. Jordan was a shooting guard and had more of a scoring role. Magic had fewer points per game, but many more assists and rebounds. If you are going to put Jordan ahead of Magic it would only be because of Jordan.s defense, mainly his ability steal the basketball. Basically these two players are on the same level even though you could put Jordan one step ahead of Magic. It.s not like Jordan is head and Shoulders above Magic Johnson, not the way that Wayne Gretzky is head and shoulders above everyone who ever played hockey by a long shot, or how Jerry Rice is ahead of every wide receiver in history by light years and holds every meaningful record by extremely wide margins.
Although not a basketball player Wayne Gretzky is an example of the greatest player to ever play the sport. He is the NHLfs all time leader in assists, goals and points. Second place is behind him by about 1000 points. If he had never scored a single goal, he would still be the NHL.s all time leader in scoring. He is head, neck and shoulders ahead of anyone else who ever played hockey. There are many great hockey players in NHL history, but none of them come anywhere near Wayne Gretzky (not by light years.)
When you compare Michael Jordan to other players in the NBA, you can see that he is one of the greatest of all time, and you also see that there are many players throughout basketball history who are comparable to him. That is to say that he is not head and shoulders above the rest. You must take into account the body of work, his role on the court and the players he competed against.
