Michael Jordan is often referred to as the greatest basketball player of all time. He is the the greatest competitor to ever play the sport, he had an unmatched will to win; he is the man. At least, that’s what you’d hear from any adult on ESPN who grew up watching Michael dominate one of the worst eras in the history of the NBA — an era watered down by a record high amount of newly formed expansion teams whose star players wouldn’t even make today’s 76ers roster.
Simply considering his inability to make it past the first round of the playoffs without Scottie Pippin by his side, posting an astounding 1-9 playoff record, Jordan is far from the greatest. LeBron James— the man whom most “Jordan lovers” insist should not be spoken in the same sentence— managed to take a YMCA Cavaliers squad to the Finals in 2007. The “terrible” Bulls team that Jordan “carried” didn’t seem to miss him too much the year after he retired, dropping only two more games than the previous season and being infamously cheated out of a Championship, losing on a terrible call in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.
One would think replacing the “greatest player ever” with a CBA player would lead to a catastrophic collapse of a team, rather than a two game drop and a Finals run ended by a bad call. LeBron’s final season in Cleveland, before leaving the Cavs the first time, they posted a record of 61-21. The following season, without LeBron, they posted a record of 19-63. This is the pattern of any franchise who loses their star player, whether it be Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, or any other name that comes to mind when you hear the words “basketball legend.” When losing one of these said legends, the team usually struggles to maintain a winning record, rather than post an impressive 55-27 record in the ’93-’94 season. Coincidence? That is for you to decide.