This might be the greatest intro music ever, MJ will approve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCR85u9QngQ

dude this review rocks so hard. i just came a little bit. scratch that, I filled my britches.

I have a friend that has been arguing for the last three years that Kobe is better than MJ. He fails.

And game 6 of that Lakers/Kings series wasn't probably fixed, it was.

it was definitely fixed. also, Kobe is not better than MJ. However, if your friend's argument is that Kobe has more natural basketball talent, or a greater skill set -- then I may be inclined to agree. He's not the defender that MJ was, nor does he have the intangible characteristics that made MJ the greatest champion in pro sports of the last 50 years or so. But he does have a better jumpshot, equal athleticism and post-game as well as similar passing and ballhandling skills. He may be a better pure scorer (his career numbers don't necessarily reflect that because he entered the league at age 18 and didn't start getting consistent minutes until his 3rd year and still had to share the scoring load with the best player in the game at the time).

His argument is that Kobe is better all around, which is a pure falseity IMO. Kobe has a great competitive drive, but nobody will ever have the same "I will fucking destroy you" intensity Jordan does. I would say Kobe's athleticism was close, but doesn't match MJ's pre first retirement.

yeah, the athleticism is close, probably too close to call for me. I think Kobe is the more well-rounded offensive player, but if you're talking all-around game, you gotta give it to MJ because of the defense and (like you said) flat-out intensity.

epic review, pos

Nice breakdown, I agree with this.

yeah, I see no points in that breakdown that I would argue. Bravo.

Not to mention Jordan is infinitely smarter than Kobe. On the court, off the court. Think about it, we now know that Jordan was pretty much a huge prick, but he did a MASTERFUL job covering this up during his playing years, despite two scathing books written about him. It pretty much came and went. For awhile, every time Kobe breathed he created a shit storm, and he had alot to do with it.

MJ was just one SHREWD motherfucker. Its kind of disheartening, because I thought he was God when I was a kid.

yeah, Jordan had all the intangibles (man-to-man defense, smarts, desire, fuck-you attitude). I definitely agree with MJ's point about shot selection (Kobe just takes some TERRIBLE shots sometimes, but when they go in it makes him look like a god) and that plays into the intelligence thing too.

^ This.

All anyone needs to know about who MJ, who he truely is, can watch his HOF speech and find out. Most players spend the time thanking everyone and being gracious. MJ seized the opportunity to blast pretty much everyone in sight. A man who had absolutely nothing to prove to anyone, and who had beaten everyone BADLY already could not resist getting in a few more parting shots.

haha, I agree about the speech. he even went back and lambasted Bryon Russell, as if having to watch that shot from the 98 Finals like 20 times a year wasn't enough punishment. He also went after that coach, who took him off varsity when he was a freshman -- like that guy hasn't had to deal with people riding him for that enough in the past 35 years. It was bordering on embarassing, like when you watch an old metal singer still trying to hit the high notes. Jordan was still grasping for straws, trying to one-up anyone who he even thought slighted him.

well, you definitely don't NEED a strong post-presence to win titles in the NBA even, I'm pretty sure the Bulls won 6 of them while rotating Luc Longley, Will Perdue, Bill Cartwright and Bill Wennington at center... although it definitely doesn't happen often.

also, see the Pistons in the late 80s (Bill Laimbeer?) and in 2004 (Ben Wallace? the guy shoots exclusively within 3 feet, and still only makes like 50% of the 4 shots he takes per game).

Inveigh, even though Laimbeer wasnt a dominating center, those Pistons team had "presence" coming out of their asses. The combo of Mahorn, Laimbeer, Salley, and Rodman were absolutely brutal in shutting people down and intimidating the fuck out of them. It took Jordan 4 tries to get past them in the playoffs, and aside from the brilliance of Dumars and Isiah and the occasional blow up from The Microwave, the reasons those Pistons teams won games was they played suffocating, intimidating defense all across the floor and rebounded like madmen. There was no great single "center," but as a collective unit they had a dominating inside presence.

Really, the only player that pulled off sustained sucess without a great inside presence was MJ 91-93. In 96-98 he had the benefit of Rodman.

Yeah, in his later days I remember Jordan posting up a hell of a lot more than going to the basket. When he developed the fade-away jumper, one of the most unstoppable shots of all time next to Kareem's sky hook or Wilt's fingeroll, he seemed very content to post up.

BigHans: I agree that those Pistons teams had a presence from their big men, I was just referring solely to offensive post presence, as MJ was discussing the necessity of a post game in relation to teams taking too many threes (so I wasn't really thinking from the defensive perspective). I don't think you'll ever find a championship team that doesn't get defense, rebounding OR scoring from their big men.

Yeah you have a point. In all acutality, the 96-98 Bulls teams had even less of an offensive post presence than the 91-93 teams, as Ho Grant was a much better scorer than Rodman. The simple fact of the matter is MJ was so fucking good during those years that nothing was going to stop them once his supporting cast became competant, and by that, I mean Pippen stepping up (he had a habit of bitching out and dissapearing in big moments during the 89-90 playoffs).

Had to pay homage. Just got done reading his autobiography "I Love Being the Enemy" for like the third time the other day.

Its always sucked Reggie could never win the big one, there was always something in his way (The Knicks, Jordan, Shaq in his prime Lakers).