A Few Misconceptions About the Great Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan was great, in fact, he may be the greatest and most influential sports icon we've seen, and will probably ever see in our lifetime. But there are things that people say about him that really bug me. I really need to get some of these things about him out there. I see or hear many of these statements from message boards, chartrooms, and any other place on the Internet where you can find some kid, who thinks he knows everything about the sport, and will defend to the death even some of the most trivial things about Jordan, but I highly doubt they were even old enough to even see or remember Jordan in his prime. Some of these things I just hear from conversations with my colleagues, and some I hear from highly respected sports writers, who I would think have better knowledge on the subject. But I guess they're just as nostalgic about Jordan, as some of those kids out there. So here are a few misconceptions about Jordan I took the liberty on setting straight.

Jordan Learned how to make his teammates better, and that's why the Bulls started to win championships
I'm sorry to say it(actually, I'm not), but. Jordan was doing basically what he did from the beginning of his career. His game changed a little, but that was really only so that Scottie Pippen could fit more into the offense. His ability to make his teammates better is terribly overrated. They started to win championships because of addition of that addition of Pippen, who is probably the greatest small forward of all time behind Larry Bird, Phil Jackson and his implementing of the triangle offense, and of course those great role players they had on those Bulls teams, who conveniently nobody seems to mention too much. Tony Kukoc, Horace Grant, and Dennis Rodman just to name a few. Dennis Rodman was a hall of fame caliber player in his career, being maybe the best rebounder of our time. He may have gotten there too, if he had just stayed in the league a little longer, and was just a little less insane.

Michael Jordan made his teammates better, right? Then why did Pippen, Grant, and B.J. Armstrong have their best seasons when Jordan was out for basically two straight seasons. Those being the 93-94 season where he played no games, and the 94-95 season where he only played 17. In the 1994 season where Jordan didn't play, Horace Grant and B.J. Armstrong made their one and only appearances to the all-star game, Scottie Pippen had his best season and was 3rd in MVP voting, and the Bulls managed to win 55 games. Now I don't know how Jordan did it, but he somehow managed to make his teammates better even without playing one game that whole season.

Michael Jordan is the greatest, or a top 5 perimeter defender the league has ever seen.
Jordan's defensive legacy is cemented by the fact that he could average 1 block, and 3 steals in a season. That was great, we hadn't seen that before, but what is supposed to be looked at is ability to lock down a player, not how many steals and blocks they pick up. But if you want to go ahead and believe that it is, then yes he was a top 5 defender, but if you look at what's really important, one on one defense, Jordan wasn't top 5. He was great, especially considering he exerted so much energy offensively, but not top 5.

There are two problems with the theory that he was such a great defensive player . One being, most of Jordan's career, Scottie Pippen was doing all the guarding of elite players, Pippen is the one who came out there and locked down Magic in the Finals. How can you call someone the greatest at something if they aren't even doing it that much?

The second being, even when he was playing by himself, there simply weren't many great scorers at his position for him to guard, And I can remember several occasions when he got lit up by scorers like Adrian Dantley and Dominique Wilkins. Not saying that he was suppose to stop them, considering they were great offensive players, but it's not like their games changed when they would play against Jordan.. He didn't have to go through what Bruce Bowen, and Ron Artest, (who are better one on one defenders then Jordan) go through, where virtually every team has a star scorer who can put up 40 or 50 points. And one on one, it was somewhat easier to guard a player because they weren't given as much freedom as they are today by the league. You put Ron Artest and Bowen in the league back in the day, and they would give hell to some of the top scorers of the 80's, including Jordan. Michael Jordan , was a good one on one defender, I never have considered him anything more then that, he could give some games where he'd lock down the opposing guy, but if I'm looking at his career as a whole(minus his run with the Wizards), he just wasn't a top 5 one on one defender.

Michael Jordan is the Greatest Dunker of All time
There was a recent special on TV. On this special they counted down the best dunkers of All time. Guess who was picked number 1? You guessed it, Michael Jordan of course. But why? This is really quite mind-boggling for me, considering Jordan is, to me, the most overrated dunker of all time. He jumped high, really high actually, it looked like he was floating at times, but that's where it stops. Most of his dunks, he just got really high , high enough to where he would slam it down hard on people, or jump from the free-throw line. But that's where it stops. he didn't have the creativity many other dunkers had or have, such as Dominique Wilkins and Vince Carter, who are the only two players who should be in the conversation for greatest dunker's ever. The great dunker's in the NBA now, are better dunker's then Jordan ever was. Josh Smith for instance, and even Andre Iguodala. Jordan's dunks got more praise and recognition for one reason, and one reason only, he's Michael Jordan. If he was anyone else, nobody would consider him in the top ten dunker's of all time. And nobody would call me crazy for not considering him as a top 10 dunker.

Really, there are many dunkers out there that I believe are much better then Jordan was. If you go and look at a few of the many videos out there of dunks on the Internet by players like Andre Iguodala, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Josh Smith, Shawn Kemp, Dominique Wilkins, and Jason Richardson, and then look at dunks by Jordan, I guarantee that you will rethink your stance on how great of a dunker Jordan was.