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Welcome in another very special edition of the fifty greatest Players of the last fifty years. As we continue our countdown and we are now to the truly hollowed ground, the top three and all along everyone has known who the top three are. The top three are going to be in some order, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Lebron James and Michael Jordan. The question has always been what is the order?
And let me say this, I know some people when we do the goat debate a ton on sports television, and one thing I have been incredibly consistent on and some people agree with me.
I think Dan Patrick agrees with me.
I think the man I'm about to mention himself agrees with me that the goat debate is almost always constricted to Lebron and Michael. But there is a third person that, by any measure, should be included, and that is Kareem Abdul Jabbar. And so if the goat debate is truly a three person debate, that means there should there is someone who might be the greatest player ever, who actually must come in as the.
Third greatest player ever.
And that is how we land here today in one of the most famous, most celebrated, most accomplished athletes in the history of any sport coming in at number three on our list, the third greatest player of the last fifty.
Years, Number three, Michael Jordan.
Now, before I even get into it, let me say this.
This is a celebration of these players.
Okay, all of these lists, all of these videos have been about how amazing these people were.
And everything they accomplished.
Now, by virtue of having Jordan third, folks are going to say I am hating on him, I am trying to tear him down.
None of that is true. And the way I would like to do.
This is over the next twenty to twenty five minutes, I'm going to speak in almost exclusively glowing terms about Michael Jordan. Then we'll take a break, and on the back end, I'm sure we're gonna have some callers, maybe even a caller that played with Michael Jordan, tell me why I'm an idiot. On that side, I will defend his ranking at three.
As opposed to two or as opposed to one.
But right now, what I want to talk about is what he did, and what he did was arguably have the.
Highest peak of any player ever.
Jordan's apex, you could argue, is the goat apex. The problem is, unlike Lebron and Kareem, the career was shockingly brief. Now what he fit into that shockingly brief career is all time stuff. So let's go through it. He is ten time first Team All NBA. That is tied for the fourth most ever, one time second team All NBA. He is five time League MVP that is the second most ever, and five other Top three finishes that is ten total career top three MVP finishes.
Only Lebron and Kareem have more.
He is a ten times scoring champion, is a one time Defensive Player of the Year. He is nine time All Defense, He is a three times steals champ, and he is fifth all time in points score on career points per game. There's all regular season and stuff. We'll get to the playoffs stuff shortly, as we always do.
Regular season the most, the thirty points per game in the regular season, the most ever, the only career thirty point per game scorer in NBA regular season history, a career average of thirty points, six rebounds, five assists on fifty percent shooting. His first career thirty five point game was the third game of his career. His first career forty five point game was the tenth game.
Of his career.
And as you will see here, and as I want to illustrate here briefly in the regular season portion before we get to the playoffs, Jordan's career, I think, for good and for bad, gets distilled far too often to as if he only played six seasons, and that allows people to say, oh, he never lost, which is obviously not true. However, what it denies Jordan is how utterly brilliant he was from almost the moment he walked in the league. So Jordan is awesome as a rookie, wins
Rookie of the Year. Jordan in year two breaks his foot and barely plays. Starting in year three, before he ever sniffed a championship, Michael Jordan was already arguably the best player in the sport. In year three, Michael Jordan averaged thirty seven points per game. That is the most points anyone has ever averaged in a season not.
Named Wilt Chamberlain.
In year four, Michael Jordan averaged thirty five points, five rebounds six. In year five, a year he averaged a triple double for damn near a month he's playing point guard, he averaged thirty three, eight and eight, and in year six Michael Jordan averaged thirty four, seven and six. Those years don't get discussed with the way they should because
they didn't end in championships. But those four seasons, years three through six, Michael Jordan, over three hundred and thirty games played in the regular season, averaged thirty.
Five, six and six, and then.
He started winning titles again before we get to the playoffs start stuff. And again, by the way, that thirty five, six and six came along with three steals per game, on fifty two percent shooting Kobe Bryant did. It was the best Michael Jordan impersonator we ever had, if you will, for the late.
Great Kobe Bryant.
Well, Kobe Bryant was never acquired able to uh Master was the efficiency that Jordan was able to score with he is. He's scored at least thirty points five hundred and sixty two times.
That is the most all time.
He's scored at least one hundred or of forty points one hundred and seventy three times, one hundred and seventy three forty point games. That is the second most all time to WILF Chamberlain. He's scored at least fifty points thirty one times. That is the second most all time to Wilt Chamberlain. So now we get to the postseason, okay, and what you are going to see is there is almost and this is another check mark in Jordan's favor.
To his credit, unlike Lebron and unlike Kareem, he never had the true dark playoff moment Lebron obviously in twenty eleven. Kareem's were a little tougher. We'll get to it in the Kareem video. Jordan didn't have that, and that's to his credit Michael Jordan, because even when he got swept, which happened early on, he wasn't playing poorly. So during six time Champs, six Time Finals MVP nineteen eighty five, he is a rookie. They are playing members Sydney Moncree
from those Milwaukee Bucks. He averaged is a rookie in the playoffs twenty nine, six and nine and in the only game they won, they lost three to one. He had thirty five points, eight rebounds, seven assists, four steals. Nineteen eighty six, he misses most of the season with a foot injury. He came back shortly before the playoffs. Played the eighty six Celtics in round one. Some people argue that's the greatest team ever. Scored forty nine in
Game one and they lost in a blowout. Scored a still playoff record sixty three points in a double overtime loss in Game two. For this series, he averaged forty four, six and six and his team got swept. The second best player in the seam was Orlando Woolridge. Can't really blame him for getting swept. He did average forty four, six and sixteen eighty seven, he is swept by Boston again. Despite this time he averaged only thirty six, seven and six.
He did have forty two in game two. So at that point in his career has been in league three years. And boy, oh boy, if we had the modern media that we have now, then at that point Michael Jordan, three years into his career, was owned three in playoff series, was one in nine in playoff games.
And and here's something I only most people know. The Bulls were under five hundred. They made the playoffs, but.
Were under five hundred in every one of those years. It wouldn't have been fair. But today's mud have been like, uh, can you win? With Michael Jordan nineteen eighty eighty answered some of that wins League MVP Win's Defensive Player of the Year wins his first career series. Game one against Cleveland has fifty points. Game two against Cleveland has fifty five points scored four twenty four In Game four against Cleveland on seventy two percent shooting, but they lost do
or Die. Game five, scored thirty nine points. Average for the series forty five, five and five for his first series win. Very different story though in round two, you're playing Detroit. He only scored thirty one time. It was thirty six in a game two win, and they lose in five. Thats a great Pistons team that would come this close to winning the title if Isaiah doesn't sprint his ankle.
Nineteen eighty nine.
First truly deep playoff run and his first truly iconic playoff moment. Singular moment obviously at the iconic game, the sixty three against Bert, one of the most famous shots in NBA history, will.
Get to a in the moment.
Round one against Cleveland, scores thirty in every single game, averages forty points, six rebounds, eight assists for the series.
Game three, series is tied one game apiece.
He throws up a forty four to seven ten and five forty four to seven ten and five. In Game four, he scores fifty, but they lose. No other Bulls scores more than fifteen. They lose in overtime. Game five, he has forty two, nine and six with one second left.
He finished with forty four, nine and six. Because he takes the inbounds, hits.
The shot over Elo for the shot, and that is a true as true of a do or die shot as you can get. It's game five of five game series. They are trailing by one. It is truly the final shot of the game. If he misses it, their season is over. If he makes it, maybe they can win the title. He makes it for the so then goes on, well, that's the shot that everyone's has seen for one hundred years now. Round two against the Knicks averages thirty six points, ten rebounds, eight assists.
Game three tied one to one in that series.
Pardon me uh. Game three tite won one in that series. Has a forty fifteen, nine and six to take the series lead. Game four has a forty seven, eleven and six to go up three to one, and then in Game six to close them out close out the Knicks.
Has a forty five and ten.
In the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time ever, he puts up there one to one against Detroit. Game three against the Detroit Pistons, the defending Eastern Conference champions, but the Pistons have not won a title yet. Game three series tie throws up a forty six, seven, five and five, but then he's not great in Games four and five and they lose three straight to lose the series. Game six, Pipping plays one minute. It's one of the
famous things. Go to the last dance if you want more unpipping struggles in the final games against the Pistons in these couple of years, we're gonna talk about. Pippin just averaged nine points for the series. Jordan, by the way, for that postseason to get to his first career Compt Finals thirty five, seven and eight.
So here is again, Jordan at this point has.
Never gotten out of the East and look at and look at how great he had been in that post in those postseasons. It's one of the reasons why I hate when we just distill the career to the championship years. It actually denies some of the greatness of early peak athletic Michael Jordan. So nineteen ninety, he's now gotten his first taste of the conference finals. Beats Milwaukee in round one. Jordan averages thirty seven points, eight rebounds, seven assists, three block, three steals.
Round two against Philly.
That Philly team had Charles Barkley, by the way, scored at least thirty seven in all five games, including the following in games two, three, and four, a forty five, eight and seven a forty nine to five and five and a forty five, six and eleven. That's three straight games for the series. Averaged forty three points, seven rebounds,
seven assists forced. Feels now he's got Detroit again. In the Eastern Conference Finals, falls down oh two Detroit to the defending champs, goes for forty seven and ten in Game three, forty to a nine in Game four to even the series games. They then split games five and six Game seven. Mj Now listen to this because they get blown out in Game seven. Okay, Jordan had thirty one points, eight rebounds, nine assists, So how do they
get blown out? Well, pipping goes one for ten. Jordan was thirteen of twenty seven.
From the field.
The rest of the Bulls were fifteen of sixty three from the field. Jordan scored thirty one points, the rest of his team scored forty one points, and they lose to Detroit again despite Jordan averaging thirty seven, seven and seven for the series. So now, now we've gotten through the early Jordan part of the careers, the struggles to beat Bird, the struggles to beat the Pistons, and now we're about to get to the championship portion of his career.
Nineteen ninety one.
Sweeped the Knicks in round one, Round two beats Chuck and the Sixers again. Scores forty six in Game three in that series, which is actually the only game the Bulls lost.
In the elimination game of that series.
Has thirty eight points, nineteen rebounds, and seven assists for that series against Chuck average thirty three, eight and eight. Then full vindication against the Pistons of the instag Commors Finals sweeps him out of the playoffs. Mj averages thirty five and seven, thirty points, five rebounds, seven assists. The Bulls went eleven to one in route to the finals. In his first Finals game ever against Magic and the Lakers, he has thirty six points, eight rebounds, twelve assists, but
they lose. The Bulls would then win the next four to win the title. That's an instinct Finals to go back and rewatch because the Lakers essentially dared Michael to be a passer and he did, and so he averaged thirty one points, seven rebounds, eleven assists, and he did on fifty six percent shooting, so he wasn't forcing shots. Who's saying the shots when they were there fifty six percent shooting, his best shooting performance in any finals ever,
in his best assist performance of any finals ever. He's a finals MVP. Obviously, he's a champion nineteen ninety two. As an defending champ, he unleashes. He doesn't have his best finals ever, but you I would argue his best playoff run ever. Miami Round one sweep forty six eleven and nine, then thirty three thirteen and six, and.
Then fifty six, five and five.
So to sweep Miami scores forty six, goes forty six eleven and nine, thirty three thirteen and six, and then fifty six, five and five. Round two against the Knicks, series is tied to two scores thirty seven to take the series lead, and then in Game seven drops forty
two on him and blows them out. Averages in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cavs thirty two, six and six, and then absolutely annihilates Clyde Drexler, the second best shooting guard in the NBA in the NBA Finals and by the way that Blazers seem had been to the finals a couple years prior against Detroit, annihilates Drexler. In Game one, he is thirty nine and eleven. That's the shrug game
with six first half threes. They blow him out. In Game two, they lose, but he has thirty nine to ten. In Game five, the series is tied. Now going for back to back titles. Series tied two games apiece. Michael Jordan scored forty six points and five rebounds, four assists, and then to win the title, they are down fifteen headed into the fourth quarter.
This game never gets discussed.
Game six, the ninety two Finals, down fifteen headed in the fourth, leads a massive comeback, finishes with thirty three points. Averages for the series thirty six points, five rebounds, six assists on fifty three percent shooting, while Drexler averages just twenty five points on forty percent shooting. Now it is
two titles, two finals MVPs nineteen ninety three. Jordan, and this is the other Jordan, before his father was tragically murdered, was already listening to a mad Rashad talking about retirement.
He's running on fumes. Don Matter sweeps.
Atlanta and Cleveland in rounds one and two, and by the way, it has another series winner against the Caves. It's not as iconic because they weren't trailing, because they were up three to zero in the series. But another series winning jump shut against the Caves and averages thirty two, six and five across those first two sweeps. But then this is an interesting moment, entering fork in the road
moment for Jordan. This was probably the closest he came to a true disastrous playoff moment, but Pippin bailed him out. They're down h two to the Knicks, and that's when they're discussing, oh, he's was out all night gambling. Everyone remembers Game four. Game three, he was three for eight down oh two to the Knicks. Jordan goes three for eighteen, but Pippin's excellent and they win. And then in game four that twenty drop fifty four on the Knicks to
take recontrol of the series. Then Game five's the Charles Smith game, when Charles Smith gets blocked four times at the rim. Jordan had twenty nine points, ten rebounds, fourteen assists. The Bulls win four straight and they're back.
In the finals. And then in those finals.
He had arguably the greatest finals anyone has ever had. There's the short list of the greatest finals anyone has ever had. Giannison twenty twenty, Lebron in twenty sixteen. We can you know, you can pick your favorite magic finals, but Jordan and d Wade and O six the greatest finals anyone ever had as far as start to finish. Giannison twenty twenty is close, but Jordan in ninety three
is pretty spectacular. By the way, Just just remember Jordan had just taken a couple of years prior played Philly in ninety one, and Jordan annihilation Yeah, ninety and ninety one, Jordan annihilates Philadelphia with Berkeley there, Barkley is now in the Suns.
Barkley is the league MVP. And this is what Michael Jordan does.
Game one thirty one points, seven rebounds, five assists, five steals in a win. Game two forty two points, twelve rebounds, nine assists in a three point close win. Game three, forty four points, nine rebounds, six assists in a triple overtime loss. Game four fifty five points, eight rebounds, four assists to go up three to one in the series. Game five, championship on the line, forty one points, seven rebounds,
seven assists, but they lose Game six. Thirty three points, eight rebounds, six assists in the game where Packson hits the shot to win the title and have the first three repeat in the NBA since Russell's Celtics. For that NBA Finals, Michael Jordan averaged forty one points, nine rebounds, and six assists on fifty one percent shooting. It might
be the greatest Finals performance anyone's ever had. He then retired, and this is now, this is the small part of the Jordan story that doesn't get told, but we will tell it because again, not telling it denies him some of his greatness. He retires, comes back for the tail end of missus the ninety four season, comes back for the tail end of the ninety five season, and in those ninety five playoffs he was at the absolutely awesome until the very last game where he wasn't What do
I mean by that. Everyone remembers the ninety six team, which we'll get to. They won seventy two games, they won the title in ninety five.
Jordan averaged more.
Points, rebounds, assists, and shot a better percentage from the field in the playoffs in ninety five than in ninety six. His first playoff game again year and a half out of the sport first playoff game, he had forty eight points, nine rebounds, eight assists. He had against Orlando in round two, the team that beat him, he had thirty eight. In game two, he had forty. In game three, he had thirty nine in game five. But game six he was eight of nineteen. He only had twenty four points. He
had six turnovers. Nick Anderson sold the ball from him and they lost. So here's the thing with Jordan, because people don't want to acknowledge that.
He ever lost.
They try to tell you story, Oh he was rusty, what he was awesome?
He averaged thirty one that series.
He scored forty eight his first game of the playoffs and against Shaq and Orlando and Penny, he had a thirty eight point game, a forty point game, a thirty nine point game. But game six a little loose with the ball and lost, and Orlando obviously goes on. They beat the Pacers in the conference finals. They go on to lose to a Keem in the finals. So the
next year, Jordan is back with a vengeance. They win seventy two games of then record, he has thirty five points to open the playoffs in an easy sweep in Miami. He has forty four points to open round two against the Knicks, forty six points in game three against the Knicks, and thirty five to.
Close them mountain five.
Then they get Orlando in round two total vindication sweep Orlando. So they went eleven to one in the Eastern Conference section of the playoffs. And in that sweep against Orlando, we had thirty five in game two, I'm yeah, thirty five in.
Game two do I no, no, no, I don't have that.
I apologize, uh, thirty five in game two and forty five in game four to send them home. And then the finals are an interesting one because that Bulls team wasn't obviously an awesome team, but the the Sonics could have presented an interesting matchup for him. But George Carl's just was just so. It wouldn't let Gary Payton guard Jordan,
So what does it matter? First three games of the finals, Jordan averaged thirty one points, five rebounds, five assists and shot forty six percent from the field, and they.
Go up three to zero.
It is then that George Carl says, okay, Gary, you guard Michael those last three games, he averaged twenty four points, five rebounds, three assists on thirty six percent shooting. So Michael Jordan, who annihilated every one in every finals he ever played in, averaged twenty four points and three assists on thirty six percent shooting. Once, Gary Payton was able to guard him, but they were already down three to up and they lost.
You know, the Soundings.
Won game four, they won game five, The Bulls win game six. And if I'm George carl or Gary Payton or Sean Kimpis still keeps me up at night. Jordan wins another finals MVP. It's his only finals MVP where the numbers are not off the charts, where the efficiency is down in the low forties, and where those points per game are not obscene. Twenty seven points, five rebounds, four assists. But he's clear Finals MVP. He's champion again.
Ninety seven. Now we're in the ninety seven playoffs. Defending champ has a fifty five point game on Washington in game two of round one, has thirty four points, eleven rebounds, six thiss, four steals in game one of round two against Atlanta against.
Miami, and these are reverened Finals.
He actually struggled a little bit, shooting less than forty percent, averaging less than three assists per game. But and it did look like the Jazz could beat the Bulls. But they couldn't because Jordan killed him. Opens the finals with thirty one points, four rebounds, eight assists, and the game winning buzzer beater after Karl Malone misses two free throws. That's what you know created the mailman doesn't deliver on Sunday's posters. Game two has thirty eight points, thirteen rebounds,
nine assists to go up two zero. He doesn't play that well in games three and four, and they even the series in Utah. And this is back when it's two three to two, Game five ninety seven.
Does it ring a bell? Yeah it does. It's the flu game. So what happened in the flu game.
It's not the flu game, the hangover game, whatever, the bad pizza game, whatever you want to call it. Here's what happened in that game. He has thirty eight points, seven rebounds, five assists, including fifteen fourth quarter points in a fourth quarter comeback. The Jazz as a whole had sixteen in the fourth quarter. It was tied with forty five seconds left. MJ misses a free throw, gets it. Yeah,
I know you're gonna be checked. He did miss free throws occasionally, but he misses a free throw, gets his own rebound, ends up hitting a three. Unbelievable, misses a three, missus a free throw, ends up hitting a three, which was obviously rare.
So now they're up three.
And they end up winning the game. That's how they win the FLU game. Game six, another fourth quarter comeback. Jordan adds thirty nine points and eleven rebounds, has ten in the fourth quarter, and then Kerr hits the game
winning fifteen footer off the MJ assist. MJ for the series thirty two points, seven rebound, six assists, and another finals MVP, And now we're to the Lives Dance nineteen ninety eight averages thirty six in a round one sweep of the Nets, averages thirty five and five, thirty points, five rebounds, five assists.
In round two against Charlotte.
Has forty one points, four rebounds, five assists, four steals to go up two all in the Pacers again in these rounds finals, but Chicago loses games three, four, and six.
By two, two and three. The game six is the famous one.
Reggie Miller's got the hurd ankle and then he pushes off, gets the open shot, hits the three to win the game.
Larry Bird walks and doesn't respond.
Now, all of a sudden, the Bulls are facing in game seven for just the second time in their championship runs, for the second time and since they started winning titles, and what happens?
Oh, pardon me?
In game seven he has twenty eight, nine and eight and they handle the Pacers.
So now we're to the finals.
Down oh one to the finals has thirty seven points, including thirteen in the fourth to critically even the series. Up to one in the finals, has thirty four and eight, including eleven in the fourth to win the game. Now they're up three to one in the finals. Game five, he's okay, but late down two with the ball, Jordan pulls up from three and misses. So now it's a little treacherous. Now we're going back to Utah again.
Two three to two. Format had a chance to win the title.
Now Utah's home court advantage, and that is what leads to I believe the single finest game of his career, which is the final game as a bull. Now the numbers don't say it's the final game of his career. It's kind of an odd box score. He had forty five points, one rebound, one assists on fifteen.
Of thirty five shooting.
There were a dozen games I listed here more than that, better than that. But given the context that Pittman's back was shot, Rodman wasn't Rodman was hanging on by a thread. They were staring at a game seven in Utah after they just survived a game seven against Indiana and the Bulls couldn't score. I mean, Jordan scored forty five, the team didn't score ninety. The context of it and how he finished it makes it the single finest game of his career.
Game seven was gonna be in Utah. As I mentioned.
Another fourth quarter comeback where MJ scores sixteen in the fourth quarter, including this sequence to win his sixth.
And final championship.
Down three with forty seconds left, races down the court. Is a total gaff by Utah. Let him get it so quick. Races down the court and gets a layup, then steals the ball from alone along the baseline, then the shot over Russell. For the finals, average thirty four points, four rebounds to assists for the for his sixth title, his six Finals MVP, and his final game as a
member of the Chicago Bulls. He then, actually, by the way, was those two years with the Wizards average combined twenty one points was not some bum of a player, but never made the playoffs, so his final playoff resume. In addition to the six titles and six finals MVPs, he led the playoffs in points per game ten times. He has the second most career playoff points, behind only Lebron. He is the most career playoff points per game at thirty three and a half. Only Luca is above thirty.
He has the fourth most career Finals points, behind only Jerry West, Lebron, and Kareem.
He has the second most.
Career Finals points per game, behind only Rick Berry. He has one one hundred and nine career thirty point playoff games, the second most of all time, behind only Lebron. He has thirty eight career forty point playoff games, the most of all time. He has eight career fifty point playoff games. No one else has even five. There are only forty five total in NBA history. There have been eleven NBA playoff games whereas someone has scored at least fifty five points.
Michael Jordan did it five times. Everyone else has done it six. He is one of only three fifty plus point finals games in the last fifty years. Lebron and Giannis have the other two. And he, of course has the most points ever in a playoff game. He did that in You're to the sixty three points against Larry Bird and the Celtics.
So there it is thirty minutes. I hope I did it justice.
On the third greatest player of the last fifty years in the NBA, Michael Jordan. We'll take a quick break and I now listen to some callers. Tell me why despite all of that, I am nothing but a Michael Jordan hater.
I'm excited for it.
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All right, welcome back.
It is a special edition of What's Right with Nick great the fifty greatest players of the last fifty years, and today was number three.
It was one Michael Jordan. So listen, I spent I think.
That was thirty minutes a giving as fair and full accounting for the greatness that was Michael Jordan's career, who packed about as much winning an offensive dominance as one could pack into a really a twelve year prime of his career. He played thirteen years with the Bulls and then two years with the Wizards, but it was a twelve year prime that we're talking about there.
So that was.
Treating the Jordan one the way I've treated all of these, which is these are tributes that it is, you know, an honor to be anywhere on here.
I understand.
However, the Jordan one is going to come across differently because the majority of people think he is the best player ever, and no one ever stops for a moment to consider should Kareem be ahead of him? Whenever there's a debate about the goat, it's Jordan Lebron, Lebron, Jordan, Jordan Lebron. Kareem has such a strong argument that it had to be considered. And once I considered it, I
came to the personal, my own list. My personal feeling is that it's not just that Lebron has had a better career than Michael Jordan, Kareem.
Had as well. Now we'll see who ends up being number one on my list.
I know everyone assumes they know what it's going to be, but everyone assumed it was going to be Lebron one, Jordan two.
So we'll see. I say all that to say this, Now, we're gonna.
Have some callers that are going to attack my integrity and the credibility of the list. And this is the segment where if I have to fight back, I might it might set well. We'll see what they say. We'll see if I'm able to just stay positive about Michael Jordan or I to bring some facts to what is going to be an emotionally wroughten discussion.
Let's go to our first call.
Hey, Nick, what's up, man? It's Greg Olsen, your colleague at Fox, And let me just tell you, living here in North Carolina and having a lot of friends in Chicago, you are not a very popular man right now. I know you just released your top fifty NBA players in the last fifty years, and the gentleman you have at number three by the name of Michael Jordan. People are not happy. I think you might want to I don't feel great about it. I'll be honest. I'm a Jordan guy.
I don't know if you can have a list for Jordan's not number one. But I'll tell you what. The people that I know in Chicago and the folks here at North Carolina who bleed tar heel blue, you are not on the top of their list. So I would highly recommend maybe not coming through these woods for a while. And I wish you the best of luck.
Well, listen, Greg, that is a good entry point to this. Greg didn't really attack me. He just said I'm not popular, you know. I'll be honest, I hadn't thought about I knew people in Chicago wouldn't be wouldn't be happy with me, And we're gonna hear from some people in Chicago in just a moment I didn't think about have folks in the great state of North Carolina.
I'm gonna I like the tar heels. I'm a tar heel guy.
That those people are gonna be mad at me about this, that's a bit of a bummer, that's all I'm gonna say.
There. Now we'll go to Chicago. I don't even know who we're going to in Chicago.
It's either gonna be someone who played with Michael Jordan or someone who idolized and covered Michael Jordan.
Either way should be good. Let's go to the next caller. So let me get this straight.
Nick Wright is putting Michael Jordan third. Okay, let's let's talk about Kareem first, who.
Was maybe the.
I don't know, fourth best player on his team when he won his last two championships and was injured and not on the court when Magic Johnson carried them to a title in nineteen eighty playing center, and by the way, Kareem had all sorts of migraines and problems in the Boston Gardens years when they could have won the title.
But okay, let's put Kareem ahead of Michael Jordan and then the other guy who scored eight points in a finals game being guarded by JJ Brea and lost to the MAVs up two games to one.
Who in his career, the two biggest shots that were hit when he was on the court was by Ray Allen after he missed a three, and Kyrie Irving with him standing in the corner. Kyrie with a contested shot, the biggest shot in Cleveland history.
But oh yeah, block was really really sweet.
And then there's the other guy who in his prime was the best offensive and defensive player in the game. Thirty seven a night, two hundred steals, one hundred blocks in back to back seasons, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year MVP. And then oh yeah, let's give you one All Star and oh yeah, you'll win six championships and never lose. And by the way, that one All Star, he basically was worthless.
In ninety seven and ninety eight. But let's put Michael Jordan third. This is offensive. This is ridiculous.
Okay, all right, that's a great job by KRM. So that's Mark Carmon. You can hear him on WG in Chicago Riemon fans sided.
You can also check out his diary.
Which has little Michael Jordan pictures and hearts written in it. So let's first talk about the Kaream thing. He is right that Kareem when he won his last two rings was not anywhere close to the best player on that Lakers scene. Now fourth best is a gross exaggeration, but not anywhere close to what magic was.
But I'm not a counting the rings got. It is not.
Purely about how many rings you have, but Kareem does have six. But that's not why I have Kaream in the top two. What he said about nineteen eighty was an absurdity, though the idea that magic was unbelievable in Game six when Kareem was hurt, no one can deny that. But in that series that even if they had lost Game six, I believe the Lakers would have won over the Sixers. Kareem averaged thirty three and fourteen on fifty
five percent shooting with five blocks per game. So let's not disparage Kareem, who was undefeated in high school lost once in college by year two was well, we'll get to Kareem later in the series. Then what he said about Lebron there was a lot there on the Lebron thing that the two biggest shots of his career were hit by other people, Well, I would disagree with that.
I would argue personally, the Game seven shot over in the Spurs series up to with the ball to ice the championship, is on par with the Kyrie shot, because the Kyrie shot, as critical as it was, the game was tied and the Warriors were dead, the Warriors were
not scoring anymore. But even if it's true that there, nobody's denying the Ray Allen shot of it, and if we want to remove the context of the heat, were down huge in the fourth quarter of that Game six, and Lebron brought him all the way back with an all time fourth quarter performance. And then in Game six or Game seven, the Kyrie game, obviously the block, obviously the back to back.
Threes or the three and the three point play.
If we want to, you know, just distill it down to those shots, then you've got to acknowledge that in the biggest shots of Michael Jordan, the biggest shots that Michael Jordan was a part of, there's the Byron Russell shot, but there's also the Kerr and the Paxson shot, and the one All Star thing, I'm not gonna I won't even engage on Scotti Gibbens, an all time player.
They won fifty four games near Jordan retired.
He had arguably the greatest coach of all time every step of the way. Dennis Rodin was a Hall of Famer. Tony Kuk coach is a Hall of famer. So don't give me the one all star thing. So like, I'm not again disrespecting anything Jordan did. But the now, the point Carr made about Jordan doesn't have a moment as bad as the eight point finals game against the MAVs and the series as bad as that one.
That is correct.
That is absolutely correct that Jordan doesn't have a valley like that. But Jordan also does not have the body of work that Kareem and Lebron have and their peaks were if Jordan's.
Peak, if even if we even want to just.
Say Jordan had the highest peak, if Jordan's peak was a one hundred, Lebron's peak was a ninety eight and a half, and Kareem's peak was a ninety eight. But if Jordan stayed at that peak for seven years and Lebron stayed there for fifteen and Kareem stayed there forever long he did. That's a differentiator. And one last point, Michael Jordan was an amazing defender, and I don't know
when defensive Player of the year. There was no moment Michael Jordan's the best defensive player in basketball, no more so than Lebron or Kobe other guys who were all time great players and also all time great defenders. But I know Jordan won Defensive Player of the Year. He wasn't a better defender that year than Dennis Rodman, and he wasn't a better defensive player at any point with the Bulls.
Then they're championship beers in Scotty Pippen.
Let's be serious here, Okay, now, someone who won championships with Michael Jordan, Let's go to him before we move on.
There is no sustain as the greatest of all time. Reason being is because there's no start and there's no ending. Every generation takes from the previous generation and they add to it. You know, so you're gonna say this guy is the greatest. Well, those guys in the sixties didn't have the same equipment, There wasn't the same knowledge, same opportunities.
The Arena's training.
Like, I just came to the conclusion that you know what, there is no greatest. This generation is enamored with Michael Jordan. The reason y'all enamored with him is because y'all didn't see him play.
Michael Jordan is the standard of the modern athlete that all of y'all know.
The fact remains is y'all don't know nothing that happened before him.
See that's the sad part to me about these discussions.
We want to act like everything started in nineteen ninety six. Truth be told, Connie Hawkins, Elgind Baylor, Doctor j those people were doing the same thing.
So there's Bj Armstrong, who I would encourage to watch the series. Nobody gave Doctor j more love anywhere outside of the greater Philadelphia area than I did right here. And by the way, I made a big I don't know if BJ knows, but when we say Jordan's three, one of the people ahead of him is Kareem whose careers started more than fifty years ago, was the inspiration
for this list. So I actually think in general BJ makes some fair points to the overall discussion just doesn't apply to me and my list, which is the perfect, definitive list of the fifty greatest players of the last fifty years. We'll be right back to preview the top two of sex all right, So there it is number three, Michael Jordan, and that leaves us Kareem and Lebron gonna be the two all time leading scores, or they already are.
The two guys are the most all NBA teams, the most Top three MVP finishes, the most Top five MVP finishes, the two guys whose you can bridge almost the entirety.
Of the timeline of this.
List by their careers. In fact, you know what now I think of it our top three. It spans the entire list from Kareem to when he retired Jordan took over to when he retired for the final time with Washington, Lebron took over.
And so.
I sat a long time ago. Moses was the inspiration for this list. Doctor j was the most gratifying portion of the list because I was, when I started wearing this few years ago, like truly ignorant to so much much of the ABA stuff. And obviously I've done a lot of the Lebron League work in real time in
my professional career. And during the pandemic, the very beginning, when there was no sports going on, we did a countdown of the ten greatest playoff games of Lebron's career, so I had some of the framework of that done already. The green stuff is jarring, and I'm excited to get
into it. I'm excited to lay out the case for he for the case for him and the case for Lebron, and I'm excited for people to see this and not actually see it, just see the updated list and be livid by the way this Also, we did this contest of can you name the top twelve? I think I have found one person.
That got it right. I'm not gonna say who.
That is, but we have one. It's not only there was only ever gonna be one winner. It was gonna be whoever got it right first, but the curve ball of having Jordan three instead of two made one hundred and fifty people who thought they had it right until this video came out realized they didn't.
But we do have at least one winner. Well, we do have one winner.
I think it's the person that I have sent to the group, but that won't be revealed for another week. We join us next Sunday for the second greatest player of the last fifty years on What's Right with Nick Raignis. Hey, thanks for watching smash, or just lightly tap that subscribe button. It all works the same to get more from the show and make sure you click why don't you wanted to mash the bell too, guys, or just you know, lightly tap the bell to get notified every time new
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