Michael Jordan Appreciation... HOF week.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

It's all subjective, these "who's the GOAT". Some say Jordan, I say Wilt, others say the Big O.

 

[Big C-Dub]

Jordan should have 7 MVP's he got robbed the years Barkley and Malone won it.

 

[RKO BLACK RKO]

BOAT

 

[Tailback U]

God damn I haven't seen some of these guys in a little while and I can't believe how some of them have aged.

I don't know why but I find it kind of sad. My childhood heroes have grown old.

 

[zack54attack]

Man his speech got me teary eyed.

 

[Tailback U]

Man his speech got me teary eyed.

I thought his speech was pretty awful to be honest. Sloan, Stockton, and Robinson's speeches were infinitely better. I didn't watch Vivian Stringer's because I don't know who she is but I have it recorded so I may go back to watch it eventually.

Jordan's speech was bitter. It had a jealous and angry tone to it for some reason which I don't understand.

This well written article about sums up my thoughts on Jordan's speech:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...-jordanhall091209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns&print=1

Jordan’s night to remember turns petty
Adrian Wojnarowski

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports 8 hours, 48 minutes ag

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The tears tumbled, flooding his face and Michael Jordan had yet to march to the microphone at Symphony Hall. He had listened to the genuine stories and speeches of a remarkable class. He had watched a “This is Your Life” video compilation of his basketball genius. Everything flashed before him, a legacy that he’s fought with body and soul to never, ever let go into yesterday.

Yes, Michael Jordan was still fighting it on Friday night, and maybe he always will. Mostly, he was crying over the passing of that old Jordan, and it wouldn’t be long until he climbed out of his suit and back into his uniform and shorts, back into an adolescent act that’s turned so tedious.

This wasn’t a Hall of Fame induction speech, but a bully tripping nerds with lunch trays in the school cafeteria. He had a responsibility to his standing in history, to players past and present, and he let everyone down. This was a night to leave behind the petty grievances and past slights – real and imagined. This was a night to be gracious, to be generous with praise and credit.

“M.J. was introduced as the greatest player ever and he’s still standing there trying to settle scores,” one Hall of Famer said privately later.

Jordan didn’t hurt his image with the NBA community, as much as he reminded them of it. “That’s who Michael is,” one high-ranking team executive said. “It wasn’t like he was out of character. There’s no one else who could’ve gotten away with what he did tonight. But it was Michael, and everyone just goes along.”

Jordan wandered through an unfocused and uninspired speech at Symphony Hall, disparaging people who had little to do with his career, like Jeff Van Gundy and Bryon Russell. He ignored people who had so much to do with it, like his personal trainer, Tim Grover. This had been a moving and inspirational night for the NBA – one of its best ceremonies ever – and five minutes into Jordan’s speech it began to spiral into something else. Something unworthy of Jordan’s stature, something beneath him.

Jordan spent more time pointlessly admonishing Van Gundy and Russell for crossing him with taunts a dozen years ago than he did singling out his three children. When he finally acknowledged his family, Jordan blurted, in part, to them, “I wouldn’t want to be you guys.”

Well, um, thanks Dad. He meant it, too. If not the NBA, he should’ve thought of his children before he started spraying fire at everyone.

No one ever feels sorry for Isiah Thomas, but Jordan tsk-tsked him and George Gervin and Magic Johnson for the 1985 All-Star game “freeze-out.” Jordan was a rookie, and the older stars decided to isolate him. It was a long time ago, and he obliterated them all for six NBA championships and five MVP trophies. Isiah and the Ice Man looked stunned, as intimidated 50 feet from the stage, as they might have been on the basketball court.

The cheering and laughter egged Jordan on, but this was no public service for him. Just because he was smiling didn’t mean this speech hadn’t dissolved into a downright vicious volley.

Worst of all, he flew his old high school teammate, Leroy Smith, to Springfield for the induction. Remember, Smith was the upperclassman his coach, Pop Herring, kept on varsity over him as a high school sophomore. He waggled to the old coach, “I wanted to make sure you understood: You made a mistake, dude.”

Whatever, Michael. Everyone gets it. Truth be told, everyone got it years ago, but somehow he thinks this is a cleansing exercise. When basketball wanted to celebrate Jordan as the greatest player ever, wanted to honor him for changing basketball everywhere, he was petty and punitive. Yes, there was some wink-wink teasing with his beloved Dean Smith, but make no mistake: Jordan revealed himself to be strangely bitter. You won, Michael. You won it all. Yet, he keeps chasing something that he’ll never catch, and sometimes, well, it all seems so hollow for him.

This is why he’s a terrible basketball executive because he still hasn’t learned to channel his aggressions into hard work on that job. For the Charlotte Bobcats, Jordan remains an absentee boss who keeps searching for basketball players on fairways and greens.

From the speeches of David Robinson to John Stockton, Jerry Sloan to Vivian Stringer, there was an unmistakable thread of peace of mind and purpose. At times, they were self-deprecating and deflective of praise. Jordan hasn’t mastered that art, and it reveals him to be oddly insecure. When Jordan should’ve thanked the Bulls ex-GM, Jerry Krause, for surrounding him with championship coaches and talent, he ridiculed him. It was me, Jordan was saying. Not him. “The organization didn’t play with the flu in Utah,” Jordan grumbled.

For Jordan to let someone else share in the Bulls’ dynasty will never diminish his greatness. Just enhance it. Only, he’s 46 years old and he still doesn’t get it. Yes, Jordan did gush over Scottie Pippen, but he failed to confess that he had wanted Krause to draft North Carolina’s Joe Wolf. Sometimes, no one is better with a half a story, half a truth, than Jordan. All his life, no one’s ever called him on it.

Whatever Jordan wants to believe, understand this: The reason that Van Gundy’s declaration of him as a “con man” so angered him is because it was true on so many levels.

It was part of his competitiveness edge, part of his marketability, and yes, part of his human frailty.

Jordan wasn’t crying over sentimentality on Friday night, as much as he was the loss of a life that he returned from two retirements to have again. The finality of his basketball genius hit him at the induction ceremony, hit him hard. Jordan showed little poise and less grace.

Once again, he turned the evening into something bordering between vicious and vapid, an empty exercise for a night that should’ve had staying power, that should’ve been transformative for basketball and its greatest player. What fueled his fury as a thirtysomething now fuels his bitterness as a lost, wandering fortysomething who threatened a comeback at 50.

“Don’t laugh,” Michael Jordan warned.

No one’s laughing anymore.

Once and for all, Michael: It’s over.

You won.

And I am a huge MJ fan. Always have fan, always will be. Greatest there ever will be. But somewhat of an asshole as it seems like the only thing he cares about in life is himself.

 

[Whatupdoe44]

thats just how he is, thats his attitude, I had a feeling it wouldnt be him thanking everyone and kissing everyones ass, and it shouldnt of been.

It was his stage at the time and he spoke how he felt, I would of been disappointed with him if he had a speech like David Robinson. Thats just not who he is

 

[Mogriffjr]

that article SUCKED...

stupid...he's talking about how all those things fueled his fire and that was the POINT of his speech...from his sisters in the beginning to byron russell towards the end...and he either THANKED them or PRAISED them after every point...terrible article and if you misconstrued his speech, watch it again.

I'm glad he did his speech that way, that's MJ...he's a fierce competitor through anything and that was what his speech was about.

 

[zack54attack]

I feel the same. I hate him and when people were talking about him at work yesterday, I wanted to puke. Put him in the Hall of Fame of gambling addicts.


And for everyone else including OP, Wilt's still the goat.

GTFO.. You live in Chicago? respect the greatness of Michael Jordan...




MJ>Wilt

 

[jeffx]

GTFO.. You live in Chicago? respect the greatness of Michael Jordan...




MJ>Wilt

So everyone has to bow down before Jordan? GTFO.

Wilt > Jordan. much better

 

[jeffx]

thats just how he is, thats his attitude, I had a feeling it wouldnt be him thanking everyone and kissing everyones ass, and it shouldnt of been.

Yep, he's always been a punk-ass bitch. Great player no doubt, but still a bitch.

 

[KoRnStARr]

dumb.

he talked about what motivated him. you faggots.

 

[jeffx]

Why we're on the subject of HOFamers, I think it's a crime Dennis Johnson still hasn't made it.