Since LeBron James said it, everyone's listening and actually thinking about this business of retiring the #23 in all of baskteball. Oh yeah, if you haven't heard by now The "King" is going to change his number from 23 to 6 in honor of Michael Jordan.
A lot of everything I want to say can be found and said by the likes of Kevin Durant and Stan Van Gundy in this article on NBA.Com.
"I have a lot of respect for Michael Jordan and LeBron is one of my best friends, so whatever he wants to do as far as his own number I'm behind. But I also know who came before me," Durant said. "Nothing against MJ, but if you retire his number around the league, what about Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson and Elgin Baylor? And all of the other great players who went before?
"If you're going to do that for Michael, you should do the same for the rest of those guys. Whatever happens, happens. I just don't think guys like Russell and Robertson and Chamberlain should be forgotten."
"I guess that's a nice gesture on his part, but [Jordan] isn't Jackie Robinson," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy countered. "They did it in baseball, but it had a historical significance."
And while I criticized Brandon Jennings earlier for his approach to the game on the court, I agree with him when he says,
"It's a good thing, but you've got to remember Bill Russell also played this game. Bill Russell won 11 rings. A lot of people didn't get to see Bill Russell. They didn't have ESPN in his time or anything like that, but the dude was a winner, too. When you talk about putting a guy's number away, there are a lot of great players that came through here. Magic Johnson, Bird. Those guys all won championships, too, and they also were great."
and then there's HOF coach Larry Brown,
"We should retire 6 [Russell], we should retire 13 for Wilt, we should retire Larry Bird, we should retire Magic, we should retire Oscar. I'm so thankful I've got a job. Those guys all gave me a career, so I love Michael and I really love what LeBron said. I don't he was trying to offend any of those other people. This kid has loved Michael since he's been a young kid and I think Michael was a pretty good role model for him, and I'm not so sure we won't be saying the same thing about LeBron's number down the road."
I'm agreeing with Stan Van Gundy?!
"I understand these young guys because LeBron didn't grow up watching any of those old guys. He thinks Michael Jordan is the greatest player ever, but there were actually guys who could play the game pretty well before Michael. You're going to retire all of the numbers and pretty soon our guys will have to wear No. 372."
But, there's one quote I really want to point out in the first article I linked to:
"Now, if I’m not going to wear No. 23, then nobody else should be able to wear it." - LeBron James
I'm sorry LeBron, we are all witnesses, you bring a lot to the NBA on and off the court, I appreciate what you do, but please don't kid yourself. His nickname as the "King" must really be getting to his head. Not that I have to dumb it down even more, but he really is essentially saying that since he's not doing it, no one else can. He's actually saying that, there isn't anything to read inbetween the lines here, it's right there, he actually said it. BOW DOWN TO THE KING!!... NOT!!
This is really ridiculous. Michael Jordan I don't want take anything away from you, truly revolutionized the game, but you came in just at the right era where media was booming; tv, the news, and world wide networking was taking effect. Let me ask, how many of you have really honestly heard of Alex English? I'll tell you who he was, he was a SF that played for the Denver Nuggets back in the 80's. Interesting fact about English? He was the leading scorer in that decade of basketball. That's right, he outscoured the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in that span of time. How many people know that? I'll tell you that I didn't until last year when I picked up NBA 2k9 and actually took time to answer the questions in-between loading times, and that's exactly my point.
If we had national television, youtube, the internet, and all of these marketing tools back in the day, I really do feel that Jordan would not be as celebrated as he is today. Bill Russell? Of course everyone's heard of him, superb defensive force that won a record 11 NBA Championships. By the way, he wore #6, where's his tribute? But outside of the big cities there were other places that held professional basketball teams that had some pretty damned good players on them, but at a time to where we didn't have the resources we have today, it's all junk and they're all forgotten. If Carmelo Anthony was playing back in the 80's no one would have heard of him because what kind of media was there in Denver back in the day? None, even today we don't really hear much of anything about the entire state of Colorado outside of their sports teams. Yet everyone knows about Illinois, New York, and of course, California.
To quote a genius that romes the myspace Lakers groups, "MJ is held above many of the other greats cause of sponsorship and capital. Not saying MJ is not great, just saying LeBron is an idiot."
I wholeheartedly agreed.
Before Jordan there was Magic Johnson(#32) and Larry Bird(#33). If there are numbers that the whole league is going to retire it has to be these guys' numbers. The rivalry these two had put everything on the map, the NBA finally got its shine, it represented everything you could have imagined between the poor, the rich, the black, and white man. You want historical significance? This rivalry was it, what did Jordan do besides do what you're supposed to do when you suit up and play basketball? What historical movements did he start? What did Jordan put on the map? Repeat basketball championships? Already been done. Jordan was great as a player, but he hardly did anything for the NBA itself other than bring in extra media outlets that were started by Bird and Magic.
The NCAA game between Bird's Indiana State and Magic's Michigan State is still the highest rated NCAA finals game ever, and for good reason. The Lakers/Celtics rivalry? Still, the greatest ever.
Johnson and Bird gave life to a dying sport,and it even extends back to their college playing days. Drug problems everywhere, and and no one went to any games.
It's as if it was all written perfectly. Bird went to Boston, a blue collar city. Magic's showtime style was the right fit in Hollywood. Bird was white, playing in Boston, a city with a history of racial intolerance. Magic? Black and in Los Angeles, one of the more diverse cities in the nation. The Celtics had black fans, definitely. But the whole race issue just added more fuel to the blazing inferno.
Stern, where would you be without these two guys? Magic Johnson, truly revolutionized the point guard position. Larry Bird, gave nonathletic white guys everywhere hope. Black man vs the White man. Both players extremely loyal to their team, organization, city, and coasts. Neither of them ever wanted to leave their team whether it be for more money, or to go ring hunting. Everyone fed off of it, and everyone loved it. This was a real rivalry. Both were winners, sometimes against each other. Jordan? The team he faced the most in the finals was the Utah Jazz, but that's no rivalry at all.
If people want to honor Jordan by not wearing #23 then far be it from them to do so, but if you want to retire someone's number that truly impacted the game, than, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, this is to you. If #23 is even thought about being retired by all teams, than #32 and #33 should be retired from basketball forever.
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