Michael Jordan is the cover athlete for NBA 2K23 and the game’s limited edition ‘Championship Edition’.
It’s the fourth time ‘His Airness’ has appeared on the cover of the popular video game, after appearances in 2K11, 2K12 and 2K16 (Special Edition).
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Arguable the most famous No.23 of all-time, this year’s edition reintroduces Jordan’s Challenges, which first appeared in NBA 2K11.
Players will relive the greatest moments of Jordan’s career, with five new moments from his college, Team USA and NBA careers added to the original 10.
After making 23 the most recognizable number in sports, it was only fitting that for NBA 2K23 we introduce the Michael Jordan Edition,” said Alfie Brody, Vice President of Global Marketing Strategy for NBA 2K.
“Additionally, we’re thrilled to introduce a brand new premium edition of the game with the NBA 2K23 Championship Edition, as no other player embodies the word ‘champion’ like Jordan.”
Michael Jordan named cover athlete for NBA 2K23 video game
At Charlotte, North Carolina’s, Spectrum Center, moments before tipoff of the 2019 NBA All-Star Game, Meek Mill will take on the role of a public address announcer, as the voice responsible for player introductions. Per tradition, the reserves receive their moment first. Then comes a rundown of the names and accolades of the game’s 10 starters. This year, it’s LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard and James Harden vs. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, Paul George and Kemba Walker.
Among the reserves of the teams — captained by James and Antetokounmpo, the two leading vote-getters of the Western and Eastern Conferences, respectively — are a pair of legends. Two weeks before All-Star Weekend, NBA commissioner Adam Silver named both Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki as special roster additions to the game. Wade, on his #OneLastDance farewell tour across the league, was selected by James, his close friend and former Miami Heat/Cleveland Cavaliers teammate. “My only goal All-Star Weekend is to throw LeBron one lob, because that’s what everybody wants to see,” Wade said. “Outside of that, I don’t need to do much else, maybe guard Dirk once.” Nowitzki will come off the bench for Team Giannis, just like he’s done for the Dallas Mavericks during his 21st and final season.
But what if Meek Mill, when he hops on the mic, actually introduces Wade and Nowitzki in the starting lineup? Honestly, they should be. It seems like a no-brainer for a starter on each team to begin the game on the bench, in place of the two OGs.
And it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened. Back in 2003, Vince Carter made the grand gesture for the most heralded reserve player in All-Star history: Michael Jordan. At the time, Jordan was a member of the Washington Wizards making his swan song appearance in the midseason game, eight days before his 40th birthday. “I was hoping that MJ ended up being a starter,” Carter, now 42 and playing for the Atlanta Hawks in his 21st NBA season, told The Undefeated. “But if not, I already had the notion that I was gonna give him the spot.”
Yet, before Carter came to do just that, it took a lot of thinking — and even some persuading. “I remember talking to Vince,” then-Indiana Pacers head coach Isiah Thomas, who was selected to lead 2003 Eastern Conference All-Stars, told The Undefeated, “because he and I were in very similar positions.”
In 1987, Thomas gave up his starting spot in the All-Star Game to the retiring Julius “Dr. J” Erving. At the time, Thomas had been the only player in NBA history to start the game in each of his first five seasons in the NBA, but he ended his streak for Dr. J. The moment shared between Thomas and Erving wasn’t the only precedent to Carter’s going-away present to Jordan. Doug Collins allowed John Havlicek to start in his place for the Boston Celtics Hall of Famer’s 1978 All-Star finale. And in 1992, Tim Hardaway went to the bench for Magic Johnson, who came out of retirement to start in the All-Star Game three months after announcing to the world that he was HIV-positive. Johnson dropped game highs of 25 points and nine assists en route to being named the game’s MVP.
What if Meek Mill, when he hops on the mic, actually introduces Wade and Nowitzki in the starting lineup?
History was steering Carter in one direction. “With it being Jordan’s last All-Star Game,” Thomas said, “I let Vince know … it would be a selfless thing to do and something I thought Jordan would truly appreciate.” (And this is from the Hall of Famer allegedly behind the “freezeout” of a young Jordan in his first All-Star Game as a rookie.)
But Carter — no shade to His Airness — wanted to start. The Toronto Raptors superstar had certainly earned the right to be in that position. He received the third-highest number of votes (1,300,895), behind only Kobe Bryant (1,474,386), the reigning All-Star Game MVP, and Tracy McGrady (1,316,297), the league’s leading scorer at 30.4 points a game. Jordan secured 1,082,909 votes but finished more than 73,000 behind Allen Iverson for the Eastern Conference’s second guard spot.
That meant Jordan, making his 14th All-Star appearance, would for the first time play as a reserve. (As an injured reserve, Jordan sat out of the 1986 All-Star Game with a broken foot.) Frontcourt stars Jermaine O’Neal and Ben Wallace joined McGrady, Carter and Iverson in the starting lineup.
“There are a lot of guys who could step aside,” Carter told The Associated Press in 2003. “I feel I owe these fans. They had enough belief in me and felt I should be out there as a starter. So why should I slap these fans in the face? … I understand the other side. But it’s one person — who is the greatest, don’t get me wrong — or a million-plus that is going to be disappointed.”
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It’s worth noting that Jordan had fully supported Carter’s original decision by accepting the unfamiliar bench role. “It’s a Catch-22,” Jordan said then. “If he gives up his spot, some fans will be disappointed. … That’s not the way it’s meant to be.”
So why exactly did the onus to give up a starting spot fall on Carter? There are three reasons. First, each player stood 6 feet, 6 inches tall and played shooting guard. “At that time,” Thomas said, “the All-Star ballot wasn’t set up the way it is now. It was all about the position you played, and they happened to play the same position.”
Secondly, both Carter and Jordan were products of the University of North Carolina. In a sense, some regarded the younger Tar Heel as the second coming of his predecessor. The title of a 2002 biography, written by Bill Harris, even dubbed Carter The Air Apparent.
And lastly, the factor that made skeptics salivate and criticism unavoidable: Because of injuries, Carter had barely played in the lead-up to the All-Star Game. When the starters were announced in late January 2003, Carter had appeared in just 10 games that season. Before the All-Star break, he returned to the court to play five more. Although the sample size of games was small, Carter had posted career-low averages in points (18.8), rebounds (3.5), assists (2.5) and field-goal percentage (43.3).
“It was a great stand-up moment, and it spoke volumes to me about the person and the man that Vince Carter is.”
“He doesn’t deserve to be in the game,” proclaimed TNT analyst and 11-time NBA All-Star Charles Barkley. “He hasn’t played enough to warrant an All-Star selection.”
It didn’t help Carter’s case when his teammates began both questioning and acting against his decision. Ray Allen took Carter to task in interviews with the media. McGrady, Carter’s own cousin, publicly offered to give up his starting spot to Jordan — twice. Iverson vowed to do the same in a private phone call with the 39-year-old player. But Jordan, according to the AP, declined each proposition. A week before the game, a reporter asked Carter if he’d considered calling Jordan and surrendering his spot. “Next question,” he responded.
According to Canada’s National Post, there were rumblings that the Eastern Conference team had “schemed to get Jordan in the starting lineup.” The Chicago Tribune reported that all five starters wanted to give up their spot, but a team vote determined Carter would do so based upon the pair’s Carolina connection. There was also a rumor that Nike, the brand that both players endorsed, had been pressing Carter. After the game, Carter debunked all of those rumblings.
When he met with the media the day before the game, Carter remained firm on his stance. “To clear the air on this Michael Jordan thing before any questions are asked,” he said, “I feel he’s a legend, the greatest player to ever play the game. That made the decision tough. I respect who he is and what he’s about.”
He might not have shown it, but the decision seemed to weigh heavily on Carter. “Other than the mandatory things I had to do,” Carter later told reporters, “I didn’t step outside my hotel room at all.”
By the Sunday afternoon of the game, Carter informed Thomas that he wanted Jordan to start in his place. “We’re working on something,” said the Eastern Conference team head coach (with a “knowing smile,” as The Indianapolis Star wrote) two hours before the game. “You guys will see at game time how it unfolds.”
So why exactly did the onus to give up a starting spot fall on Vince Carter?
In a pregame huddle, Carter grabbed Jordan and whispered in his ear. “I told him, ‘You’re taking this spot,’ ” Carter says now, more than 15 years later. “I told him he wasn’t getting me blackballed from the league. … He kept saying, ‘No, no, no. You earned it.’ I said, ‘Yeah … but this is your last one. So you’re gonna take the spot.’ If he didn’t, I was gonna walk back into the tunnel and into the locker room so he wouldn’t have had a choice.”
Onstage inside Atlanta’s Philips Arena, Carter was still announced as a starter for the Eastern Conference in the 2003 NBA All-Star Game to the tune of boos from the crowd. But moments later, when the announcer revealed that Jordan would take his place, Carter cracked a smile.
“I thought it was important that Vince be listed and be acknowledged as the starter,” said Thomas, who notified the announcer of the last-minute change. “And after giving up his position, we could honor Michael Jordan. I felt like they both should’ve been acknowledged. … It was a great stand-up moment, and it spoke volumes to me about the person and the man that Vince Carter is.”
Jordan, the freshly minted starter, opened the All-Star Game with seven missed shots but ultimately found a groove. With 23.1 seconds left in the first overtime period and the game tied 136-136, the Eastern Conference team put the ball in Jordan’s hand. With three seconds left on the clock, he delivered with a trademark fadeaway over Shawn Marion, bringing the crowd, which included Jay-Z and Beyoncé sitting courtside, to their feet.
After a Western Conference timeout, Carter rushed out onto the hardwood as the first teammate to dap Jordan up in celebration of the clutch play. Unfortunately, the moment was spoiled by a controversial foul called on O’Neal while defending Bryant’s 3-point heave from the corner. Bryant made two of three free throws to send the game into double overtime. The Western Conference went on to win 155-145. Jordan finished the last All-Star Game of his career with 20 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a should’ve-been game-winner.
“The official should not have made that call,” Thomas said. “Jordan had just made the game-winning shot in the All-Star Game … and you call a foul on a fadeaway 3-pointer to send a guy to the line? The official totally missed the moment. That could’ve been the perfect send-off for Jordan.”
When the time comes for Carter to retire, perhaps the commissioner will make him a special All-Star Game roster addition. “That’d be cool,” Carter said, “if he’s nice enough to do it.” And maybe a younger player, who understands Carter’s indelible legacy, will step aside for him to have a moment — just like the one he gave Jordan.
Aaron Dodson is a sports and culture writer at Andscape. He primarily writes on sneakers/apparel and hosts the platform’s Sneaker Box video series. During Michael Jordan’s two seasons playing for the Washington Wizards in the early 2000s, the “Flint” Air Jordan 9s sparked his passion for kicks.
We know there has been talk of whether or not Michael Jordan would be able to play in the NBA at 50 years old, but a little over 10 years ago, MJ was playing at age 39. After hitting The Shot in Utah in 1998 and seemingly ending his career on a storybook finish, Jordan decided to come back to the game in his late 30s in the 2001-02 season.
Jordan wasn’t in his typical shape physically, and he had setbacks in his return because of a broken rib suffered from a Ron Artest injury during the offseason before his comeback. However, Michael fought through these things and still managed to be a highly effective player for the Washington Wizards at 38 and 39 years old.
During his final run in 2003, he was elected to the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the Feb. 9 game. Aside from the controversy heading into the game of whether or not he’d be allowed to start his final All-Star Game, the night was about Jordan going against the best players in the Western Conference and showing he still had enough to beat anybody one-on-one.
There were two points to the Michael Jordan aspect of this game: 1) celebrate the legacy of Jordan and 2) go at the greatest player to ever play the game.
Looking at Jordan’s final line, one can see he struggled throughout the game. He finished with 20 points on 9-of-27 shooting from the field. He took shots at the rim, and he took shots at every player who tried to defend the legend. The experience embodied everything we knew about MJ and everything we continue to know about him.
He was relentless, even when things weren’t working out for him. Shawn Marion was probably near his athletic peak at the time, capable of deterring down anybody on the court who wasn’t named Shaquille O’Neal. Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett were two of the best players in the league on both sides of the court. Gary Payton was still a very capable defender when it came to guarding slower guys. And the West had plenty of length with Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Shaq to bother anything Jordan tried to put up.
Michael didn’t let anything stop him from trying to prove he could still take any one of them when given the opportunity. His competitive nature that we wax on about to this day had the biggest spotlight of the weekend.
Much like everything he had to do in his comeback with the Wizards, Jordan had to try to outthink you to get to where he wanted to be. The first step was more of a premonition than a reality, but he used the fear of what he once was to his advantage. He had to get to his spots, and he had to have a quick release when he got there, before you realized he had reached his destination.
When defenders did close on him, he had to trick them into thinking he was out of options and stuck in neutral. The famous pump fake that had dissected the defensive capture by his opponents so many times was still as deadly as it ever was. He got you in the air, where much like space nobody can hear you scream. Once you were in the air, his impeccable footwork that had taken so many years to perfect would carry him into his shot.
And his hands were still accurate once he was freed up. Muscle memory, repetition, and hundreds of thousands of jumpers taken in his life were guiding the ball into the basket. Watch the video below and remember this is the Kevin Garnett who was one of the best defenders in the world, often assigned the task of being the duct tape that kept Flip Saunders’ makeshift zone defense together in Minnesota. He was third in Defensive Player of the Year voting that year, and yet still susceptible to biting when Jordan tricked him.
He was no longer a muscle twitch away from blowing past you and assaulting the rim before it knew what hit it. The instincts were there, but the body rarely complied with the thought process. As Jordan hit his athletic peak and then started to slowly roll down the hill, he developed the destructive post game he would abuse defenders with on a nightly basis.
It wasn’t just about strength, although by that time Jordan seemed to have the same vice-like grip a 50-year old steelworker might still possess. Like everything MJ did in his career, there was a plan to using that strength. The shoulder would fly into the middle of your chest to let you know he’s there. Then he’d work one side of the chest over the other, to take away your balance. Once your balance was gone, it was going to be hard for you to contest the shot, especially if you were a smaller player.
And that’s the space he needed to create. Post play is always about creating space. Create enough of it and you can ease into whatever shot you are allowed to take. Know the defender’s outstretched hand will miss by an inch, and it feels like a mile of room to operate and execute.
The 39-year old Jordan was a con man. Not in the business sense, but he was a con man in the sense that he would set you up to play the shell game, make you think you could win, and then empty your wallet by sleight of hand. If he knew he could knock down the midrange jumper against your stretching fingertips, it was immediately used as a smoke screen to set up a future play.
When a player gets in rhythm on a certain shot, you have to find ways to take away that shot and a variation of that shot. Against Dirk Nowitzki below, midrange jumpers set up the moment of believing a post-up fadeaway from the same area on the floor could happen. That’s when the footwork creeps back in and provides you with a drop step and a layup at the basket against a 7-footer.
And then there was the idea of putting the game on the line and giving the ball to the greatest player to ever lace up a pair of kicks. It wasn’t just about hoping to recreate magic on the court for MJ. People accepted that he wasn’t the player holding his hand up for a photo finish in Salt Lake City five years earlier. But you still hoped he’d deliver in the clutch, and he rarely disappointed.
Even with the knee tendinitis and athletically drained legs, Jordan could still find that extra space to get off a jumper that mattered more than any other shot from the previous 47 minutes.
This would have been a storybook send-off for MJ if Jermaine O’Neal hadn’t fouled Kobe Bryant in the remaining seconds of this game to allow an overtime period. In that overtime period, Kevin Garnett took over and finished off his All-Star Game MVP campaign.
But the people got what they wanted to see. Jordan still had it against the best players in the world, even if it wasn’t pretty at times. He could score against the most athletic defenders, even when age and history told us it wasn’t really possible for a perimeter player to do this. The East gave him a chance to end the game and add to his legend, which he promptly complied.
With Michael Jordan turning 50 today, there is going to be a lot of talk about free-throw-line dunks, shrugs to the crowd, heroic games against the Utah Jazz, and a legend that has become one of the influential world figures over the last century. But let’s not forget that moment 10 years ago when he was at the NBA All-Star Weekend and proved to us that there was still a little legacy left in those fingers.
Happy birthday, Michael. It was an honor to watch you play.
In 1998, Michael Jordan was selected to his twelfth NBA All-Star Game, garnering more votes than any other player.
Madison Square Garden was Jordan’s favorite place to play so it only made sense that he wanted to put on a show.
Joining Jordan in the Eastern Conference starting line-up were: Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Shawn Kemp, and Dikembe Mutumbo.
The Western Conference starters were: Gary Payton, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Karl Malone, and Shaquille O’Neal.
Although they didn’t know it then, more than 10 players from the game would go on to join the NBA Hall of Fame.
But even with all the superstar talent, MJ’s focus was on the young Kobe Bryant, who was the youngest player ever to be selected as an All-Star starter.
In the ESPN documentary “The Last Dance,” Jordan referred to Bryant as “that little Laker boy” and told his teammates to watch out for him in isolated scoring situations.
Jordan was right to game-plan for Bryant, as he led all Western Conference players with 18 points.
But Kobe’s strong game wasn’t enough to take down Jordan, who put up 23 points, eight assists, six rebounds, and three steals.
For his performance, Jordan was awarded his third and final All-Star Game MVP.
Jamal Mashburn spent 12 years as a forward in the NBA, and he is making news for an intriguing story he recalled about Michael Jordan. Mashburn played against Jordan in the 2003 NBA All-Star Game. He revealed the eye-opening conversation he had with the legendary Bulls-turned-Wizards guard.
Jamal Mashburn could not believe what Jordan said to him before the 2003 NBA All-Star Game
Michael Jordan played his last All-Star Game in the NBA as a Washington Wizard in 2003. He might not have had the same ability as he did in the 90s with the Chicago Bulls, but he had plenty left to give.
Jamal Mashburn recalled some advice Jordan gave him while they were playing one-on-one before the start of the All-Star Game.
“I always knew Jordan was great, but when I chatted with him, and he was able to break my game down analytically, [I gained more respect for him],” Mashburn told JJ Reddick on The Old Man and the Three.
Jordan named Mashburn’s tendencies, such as his inclination to drive to the left 80% of the time and pull up with his right hand. Then, the legend revealed key insight to Mashburn. Jordan said Larry Bird and Julius Erving taught him to “play the game within the game.”
In other words, Jordan emphasized the importance of changing one’s playing style to keep defenses honest. For example, driving right sometimes instead of going left mixes things up. The six-time NBA champion proceeded to go on a tirade about different star’s strengths and weaknesses.
All in all, Jamal Mashburn appreciated Jordan’s knowledge and gained newfound admiration for him.
“I thought I knew a lot about basketball, but he’s on a different level.”
Christopher Smith is a sports journalist who primarily covers the NBA, NCAA Basketball, NFL, and NCAA Football for ClutchPoints. The Aurora, Illinois native received his education from Creighton University, and he has bylines at Last Word on Sports and FanSided.
Just as fans argue about who the GOAT of the NBA is, so do the league’s current or former players.
The debate is most often between LeBron James and Michael Jordan, though Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has some backers, too. Prior to the James era, the consensus pretty much was that Jordan was the NBA’s GOAT, but now there is very much a debate.
And this debate is not one that is going away anytime soon unless James pulls a Tom Brady and unequivocally ends the matter by winning another championship or two before retiring.
Either way, it’s a fun argument, with multiple players making a strong case.
Jordan has 39 endorsements from players since we began keeping track, compared to James’ 31 endorsements.
Below, check out all the players who have gone on record as saying Michael Jordan is the NBA’s greatest player of all time – or GOAT.
Magic Johnson
First of all, let’s not take anything away from LeBron James,” Johnson said. “Because LeBron James is a great basketball player, one of the all-time greatest that’s ever played the game. LeBron James to me, when you think about all-around basketball players, he’s probably the best of all time. An all-around basketball player. But when you want to say ‘who’s the greatest ever’ it’s still Michael Jordan.
May 24, 2020
Shaquille O’Neal
I’m going to have to say Michael Jordan because Michael paved the way for all the great guys that we have now. And 6-0 in the Finals without a legitimate big man. Went through a lot. Took a year off. Came back and won three in a row. He’s definitely the greatest player.
May 8, 2020
Charles Barkley
Michael’s [Jordan] one, Oscar Robertson’s two, [Bill] Russell, Wilt [Chamberlain] and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], no particular order after Michael.
May 2, 2020
Dwyane Wade
Steve Nash
I think MJ is my guy for sure. When you talk about LeBron and Kobe, I totally understand why people have LeBron where it is, first or second in many people’s eyes. When you look at the whole picture of everything LeBron has done over the course of his career, it’s hard to argue with. I think at his best, Kobe right up with any of them. I don’t know where the knock is but when he was flying and playing at his best, he was as good as we’ve ever seen.
May 9, 2020
Dominique Wilkins
James Worthy
If I had to make my choice, I’m going with MJ because I played with him. I know he’s deadly, and I don’t think there’s anybody in the league today that has the tenacity that he had. Michael’s not nice. I don’t know man, I love LeBron. I’m going to have to go with my boy, cuz he chose me.
April 28, 2020
Damian Lillard
Carmelo Anthony
You know, M.J. is the GOAT. He’s the greatest ever. We all know that and we all agree to that. Why can’t we say that, but also give LeBron his flowers while he’s here too?
May 28, 2020
Ray Allen
In my opinion, M.J. is the GOAT. LeBron is a product of M.J., so a lot of what’s in LeBron — in his DNA — comes from Michael. For anybody that says that LeBron is the GOAT, they’re growing up in today’s era, and they believe what they believe based on how it feels and what he means to them, and that’s OK. But the way M.J. affected the game, man, he had a stranglehold on the league and he struck fear in everyone because he was an unstoppable player.
February 9, 2021
Vince Carter
Matt Barnes: So for the record, you’ve got MJ, then Kobe, then LeBron.
Vince Carter: Yes.
Barnes: Does LeBron have the opportunity in your mind to possibly jump Kobe?
Carter: He has an opportunity based on what he gets done. If he gets to the Finals again… You’re just gonna give him more credit. Now, ten times in the Finals?!
May 19, 2020
Shawn Kemp
I’mma say Michael Jordan. I think LeBron James has done great, but only thing Michael Jordan ever did was win. There’s players as myself who haven’t won a championship that were very good. There’s guys who I’ve seen win championships, they’re good players, but they had a good team also around them. And I look at Michael Jordan, he played with the Bulls, and he had Scottie Pippen. But without Michael being there, the Bulls wasn’t gonna win the championship. It came from Michael Jordan.
November 4, 2020
Antoine Walker
Jamal Crawford
Zach LaVine
I remember going back and watching all his highlights. ‘Come Fly With Me.’ ‘Michael Jordan Playground.’ Obviously, every kid watched ‘Space Jam.’ He was the idol of all idols. I don’t think anybody can touch his legacy or his greatness.
For me in my books, I always have MJ as the best player ever because without him, there’s nobody coming after him. He inspired us.
February 17, 2023
BJ Armstrong
Appearing on ESPN’s First Take, when asked by Mex Kellerman who the next best player is after Jordan, BJ Armstrong answer was none other than the Big Fundamental.
April 18, 2020
Kendall Gill
I’m gonna go: Michael. Kobe. LeBron. That’s how I put ’em.
April 27, 2020
Bogdan Bogdanovic
Evan Turner
Shane Larkin
In addition, Larkin considers Sergio Llull the most clutch player and Vassilis Spanoulis a super legend, enjoys watching Facundo Campazzo, picks Michael Jordan over LeBron James, and selects Allen Iverson as his favorite player.
April 20, 2021
Isaiah Todd
I always knew in my heart that Michael Jordan was the greatest of all time. I looked up to LeBron and KD because he’s from Baltimore, but now I kind of look at the same guys but I look at Ja Morant’s game, too. I look at Ja Morant and Anthony Davis.
Mario Chalmers
He [Michael Jordan] is the GOAT, not even a question.
May 6, 2020
Derek Harper
He’s the GOAT,’’ Harper said. “I like everything about LeBron. He’s up there. When it comes to winning, Michael is like Tom Brady. For my buck, MJ is the best basketball player to ever play — bar none.
May 10, 2020
Quinn Cook
Bruce Bowen
Jordan Poole
Poole always sided with Jordan. His father, a Chicago native, had told him stories about Jordan’s greatness.
May 15, 2020
Matt Barnes
My list would be Jordan at number one, Kobe number two and LeBron number three. LeBron can pass Kobe if he can capture another title. That would be a title with three different teams. He’s moving up the scoring list, he’s on the assist list and as far as all-around, he’s one of the greatest we’ve ever seen. Right now, it’s Mike number one, Kobe number two and LeBron three, but depending on how long he sticks around, LeBron can pass Kobe and he’ll definitely be in the discussion with Jordan.
May 17, 2020
Enes Freedom
I feel like MJ is the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) now.
May 18, 2020
Udonis Haslem
Mike the greatest of all time. But you can’t call me the b-word and the h-word. Nah, alright Mike. We gonna have to square off.
May 22, 2020
Tomas Satoransky
Deonte Burton
Rony Seikaly
The debate is endless, but the only reason I’d give the nod to Michael Jordan is because he had more of an assassin mentality. If he smelled a little bit of blood, he would come after you and you were finished.
September 8, 2020
Marreese Speights
I think the LeBron vs. MJ stuff is annoying as hell. You can’t really compare these guys right now, man. That’s disrespecting the career that Jordan had. At this point, I don’t think you can compare the two. I don’t think you could put them in the same category right now. When Bron’s career is over, then we can go back and talk about that. When a guy is still playing, you can’t say, “He’s the best player to ever play the game.” You can’t do that. Everybody has their own opinion, but some people have never played the game of basketball or touched the court and you can tell. You cannot put that man in the same category as MJ right now. When his career is over, that’s a whole different story. But right now, while he’s still playing, you can’t do that.
October 15, 2020
Brendan Haywood
One of the more interesting things is that I had the GOAT conversation with LeBron. We were on the plane and I told him: “I love you, brother, but I have to go with Mike.” I told him my reasons. I’ve had this conversation with him face-to-face. Six rings. Six MVPs. The guy has had two different three-peats and has never been to a Game 7. He was MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season.
December 11, 2020
Larry Hughes
MJ is the greatest basketball player of all-time, in my eyes. If we look at the Jumpman symbol, LeBron is right there on his shoe. That’s really how I look at it. He’s not too far behind. If I had to answer then I’d say MJ. But I’m never going to discredit what LeBron is doing. It’s just a different time. I give credit where it’s due.
December 11, 2020
Scott Williams
That was about the only difference between Michael and LeBron that made me think that his competitiveness and fuel were a little bit more than what LeBron had and that’s why MJ would never lose in the NBA Finals. He just wouldn’t let it happen. I don’t care who was wearing the other jerseys across from him. You knew that he was the ultimate weapon. It’s not a knock on LeBron. That’s just what separated Michael from everybody else including Magic, Bird, the greats of the greats.
December 11, 2020
JJ Redick
Vassilis Spanoulis
I can understand Michael Jordan. He is the greatest player in the history of basketball for me, and everybody can understand him.
November 3, 2022
Doc Rivers
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Michael Jordan was part of a five-player freshman class in 1981-82 that included John Brownlee of Fort Worth, Texas; Warren Martin of Axton, Va.; Lynwood Robinson of Mt. Olive, N.C.; and Buzz Peterson of Asheville, N.C.
Jordan was listed as Mike Jordan in the 1981-82 media guide and was introduced to the crowd in his first game against Kansas as freshman guard Mike Jordan.
Jordan named Walter Davis and Magic Johnson as his favorite players.
The last player to wear No. 23 prior to Jordan was Ged Doughton, a guard from Winston-Salem, N.C., who played for Carolina from 1975-79.
A Raleigh Times column the day after the 1981 NCAA championship game identified Jordan as Michael “Magic” Jordan among the next season’s incoming freshmen.
Jordan was the fourth freshman to start his first college game for head coach Dean Smith, following Phil Ford, Mike O’Koren and James Worthy.
Jordan scored 12 points against Kansas in Charlotte on Nov. 28, 1981, in his first game as a Tar Heel.
Carolina was ranked No. 1 in the nation in the Associated Press poll in 57 of his 101 games as a Tar Heel.
Jordan’s teams went 11-1 against top-10 opponents.
Carolina was not ranked in the top 20 in the AP poll in only two of his 101 games (against Texas-Pan America and Chattanooga in December 1982).
Carolina finished his three seasons ranked No. 1 in 1981-82, No. 8 in 1982-83 and No. 1 in 1983-84.
Jordan scored in double figures in 90 of 101 games (63 of 67 games as a sophomore and junior).
Scored a career-high 39 points against Georgia Tech on Jan. 29, 1983.
Made a career-high 13 field goals against Duke as a sophomore and Chattanooga as a junior.
The most points he scored against any team were 159 against Duke. He scored 19-11-32-32-18-25-22 in his seven games against the Blue Devils (22.7 ppg).
Jordan’s 149 points against Georgia Tech are the most by any Tar Heel ever against the Yellow Jackets.
Jordan led the team in scoring as a sophomore and junior. As a freshman, he was the third-leading scorer behind junior James Worthy and sophomore Sam Perkins.
Jordan’s 16 points against Georgetown in 1982 are the most by a Tar Heel freshman in a national championship game.
Jordan led Carolina with nine rebounds in the 1982 NCAA title game vs. the Hoyas.
Jordan is one of six Tar Heel players who were elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame as a player with Billy Cunningham, Bob McAdoo, James Worthy, Charlie Scott and Bobby Jones.
ESPN named Jordan the Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century. He was one of 11 basketball players in the top 100. The next highest-ranked basketball player was Wilt Chamberlain at No. 13.
Jordan (1984) is one of four Tar Heels who earned consensus National Player of the Year honors with Phil Ford (1978), Antawn Jamison (1998) and Tyler Hansbrough (2008).
Jordan is one of two Tar Heels to win National Player of the Year honors in two seasons (1983 and 1984). George Glamack is the other (1940 and 1941).
Jordan is one of six Tar Heels who earned consensus first-team All-America honors in two or more seasons.
In 2004, a blue-ribbon panel selected Jordan as the Greatest Male Athlete in the first 50 years of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Greatest Female Athlete was Carolina soccer player Mia Hamm.
Jordan was first-team All-ACC in 1983 and 1984. The only other player to earn first-team All-ACC honors in those seasons was his Tar Heel teammate, Sam Perkins.
Jordan is one of nine Tar Heels to win ACC Rookie of the Year honors.
Jordan scored 1,788 points as a Tar Heel (17.7 per game).
He averaged 20.0 points as a sophomore and 19.6 as a junior.
Jordan shot 44.7 percent from three-point range in 1982-83 when the ACC experimented for that one season with a 17-feet, 9-inch line.
Carolina went 88-13 overall and 42-4 in ACC regular-season play in Jordan’s three seasons.
Carolina was unbeaten against two ACC teams in Jordan’s three seasons – 8-0 vs. Clemson and 7-0 vs. Georgia Tech.
Jordan led Team USA to a gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics after his junior season at Carolina. He led Team USA in scoring with 137 points in eight games (17.1 ppg), including a game-high 20 points in the gold medal game against Spain.
Jordan’s coaches at UNC included head coach Dean Smith and assistant coaches Bill Guthridge, Eddie Fogler and Roy Williams. All four earned National Coach of the Year honors as head coaches.
Michael Jordan is one of the greatest ever to play in the NBA. He has had a long career in the League filled with trophies, awards, and worldwide recognition. Jordan has played with a diverse range of players who challenged him thoroughly. But he ultimately overcame all of them to win six NBA titles, which include two three-peats in the 1990s. He has faced some of the strongest and the fastest players in the game’s history; not to mention, some of the tallest as well.
Jordan’s own career lasted for almost two decades, during which he faced several players. He played with them and took it upon himself to beat them.
Michael Jordan “climbing the mountains”
Michael Jordan has beaten some of the tallest men in the sport ever. Gheorghe Murasan, who stood at 7 feet 7 inches, played for the Washington Bullets (now Wizards) at that time. Jordan faced him multiple times from 1993 to 1998, overcoming him with some memorable dunks.
Another giant in the league then was 7’7 Manute Bol, who played for the Bullets as well. In the 80s and early 90s, 7’7 Manute Bol was the tallest player in the league and 6’6 Michael Jordan was the highest flying high flyer. Hence, they had their share of mid-air collisions, often with very different results. Jordan was the first to draw blood during Manute’s early days with the Bullets.
Jordan facing the shortest players
Michael Jordan has also faced some of the shortest players in the league. Muggesy Bogues had great handles and moved the ball rapidly onto the other end of the court. He had a very famous tangle with Jordan. Reportedly, Jordan once told him, “Shoot the ball, midget.” Some think this ruined his career, but Bogues rubbishes any such claims. Bogues further spent five years in the NBA, making a total of 14 seasons in all.
He played for the Washington Wizards, the Hornets, Golden State Warriors, and the Toronto Raptors, averaging 7.7 points a game. He eventually acted together with Jordan in ” Space Jam”.
Another name that comes to mind is that of Spud Webb. Webb is known for dunking over Jordan during their college days. Visual of the same are truly a sight to see. He probably wowed the entire audience by dunking over a 6’6 Michael Jordan.
The real Greek Freak isn’t Giannis Antetokounmpo. His name is Nikos Galis, and one day, he dropped 50 points on Michael Jordan’s head.
Before the likes of Nikola Jokic, Dirk Nowitzki, or Arvydas Sabonis, nobody changed European basketball more than Galis.
Who is Nikos Galis?
Greatest European shooting guard of all time? 🇬🇷 Nick Galis turns 65 & we celebrate him with 5 minutes of his UNREAL highlights from #EuroBasket 1987 🏆
Galis was a standout at Seton Hall in the late 70s and even averaged 27 points his senior year. He was given a chance to play in the NBA when the Boston Celtics took him with the 68th pick of the 1979 NBA draft.
However, Galis had his NBA dream come to a halt during training camp a few months later. He suffered a severe ankle injury, which led the Celtics to use their last roster spot on Gerald Henderson. It wasn’t a bad decision at the time, but looking back a few years later, coach Red Auerbach called that decision the “biggest regret” of his entire career.
So how good exactly was Galis? You’ll rarely find any coach admit their biggest mistake let alone one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. We’ll get to more on Galis’ story in just a bit, but here’s an impressive tidbit. Some considered him the “Michael Jordan of Greece.”
Once Galis was released by the Celtics, he decided to head back home to Greece. He signed with Aris Thessaloniki, where he became a legend.
Despite standing only 6-foot tall, Galis dominated Europe, averaging more than 40 points a game twice and losing only a total of six games in 12 seasons. He’d even get offers from a couple of NBA teams in the 80s. However, since FIBA rules didn’t allow NBA players to join their national teams until 1992, Galis rejected every offer.
Nikos Galis vs. Michael Jordan
But in 1983, Galis did get a little glimpse of how the NBA was played. The Greek national team invited the North Carolina Tar Heels to an exhibition game on their home soil. Sure, they were a college team, but they did have Jordan, Kenny Smith, Sam Perkins, and Brad Daugherty, players who were one of the first six picks of their respective draft class and had a solid NBA career.
The Tar Heels won the game 100-83, but the only storyline that mattered was the battle between Jordan and Galis. While some reports claimed Galis only scored 24 points instead of 50, he did receive a lot of praise from Jordan after the game:
“I never thought that there was such a good offensive player in Europe, and especially in Greece.”
Whether Galis did score 50 or 24 points that day, he made it look easy against Jordan. You can only imagine his impact in the NBA if FIBA changed its rules to allow professionals to play in tournaments 10 years earlier.
Derick Quinanola is a sports writer for ClutchPoints who covers the NBA, NFL, and boxing. The University of San Carlos graduate uses knowledge to write content that’s both entertaining and informative for readers.
Whatever basketball’s blue-collar bona fides, whatever its associations with the barbershop and the neighbourhood blacktop, its culture has proved hostile to at least one category of everyman: the plumber.
A few years ago, fans on YouTube and TikTok began uploading grainy footage of star players from previous decades and zooming in on the defenders, usually white guys with short shorts, long moustaches, and very little muscle definition.
After these players were centred and freeze-framed, a voice-over would deride them as “plumbers”. As in: “Michael Jordan played against plumbers.”
Steph Curry and his imitators started shooting from the logo zones way beyond the three-point line about 10 years ago. Getty
Basketball fans love to argue about the evolution of the game, and whether yesterday’s superstars had it easier. Putting aside the meme-makers’ contempt for tradesmen, they’re right: today’s professionals do look more athletic and skilled than their predecessors.
But then again, today’s fans are steeped in the current visual style of the game, which has changed over the past few decades. We may underestimate former players’ explosiveness, fluidity, and precision.
To find out whether NBA gameplay has indeed become more challenging, I embark on an investigation – and I don’t like what I find.
Like many basketball fans in their early 40s, I’m hopelessly nostalgic for the NBA of the ’90s, for Hakeem Olajuwon’s slippery footwork, and Penny Hardaway’s pretty interior passing. But after digging through data and consulting with league insiders, I can’t help but conclude that today’s game really is more rigorous.
A large body of evidence suggests NBA players now move more explosively than those of previous eras – even though they aren’t themselves larger-bodied. The league’s average height peaked at 2 metres in 1987, and since then, only the (relatively) diminutive point guards have inched up as a group. Taller players – centres and forwards – have actually shrunk a bit.
NBA players packed on weight until 2011, but they’ve since thinned. That evolution can even be seen across individual careers: LeBron James fussily shapes his physique during every off season, and in recent years he has transitioned to a slimmer frame.
To measure how those (slightly) smaller bodies move, some NBA teams turn to a company called P3. More than two-thirds of the players who were on pro rosters when the season tipped off last month have worked out at a P3 facility, according to the company.
Players are outfitted head-to-toe with more than 20 sensors. They’re asked to perform intense vertical and lateral movements atop special, sensor-laden platforms. Their every twitch is recorded by motion-capture cameras.
Marcus Elliott, the founder and director of P3, tells me that his system measures raw-force production, power, overall movement, and speed, and that with respect to all of them, “today’s average NBA athlete is 4 to 7 per cent better than the average NBA athlete from more than 10 years ago”.
‘They weren’t Hondas’
When Elliott began evaluating players about 15 years ago, many were operating at only 75 to 80 per cent of their potential athleticism. They weren’t as ballistic as today’s players, but they could still get by on skills.
Most of today’s players, by contrast, are more than 90 per cent optimised by their first visit to P3. Elliott compares them to Formula 1 cars: “They accelerate at a faster rate to higher velocities and they change directions quicker.”
I ask him about previous generations of players. What cars do they remind him of? “They weren’t Hondas,” he says, “but maybe something in between.” You can decide which is worse: Hondas or plumbers.
Basketball has never been a more global sport; a record 125 international players are on teams’ rosters this season. But before NBA general managers raided the worldwide talent pool for exceptionally skilled players, some taller players basically got by on their height.
There were outliers: Bill Walton regularly threw no-look passes from the centre position; Magic Johnson played point guard at 206cm; Jack Sikma (211cm) and Sam Perkins (206cm) both stroked it from beyond the arc.
But their fellow bigs tended to be clumsy ball handlers who took few shots outside the key.
Now, shooting and passing abilities are the purview of virtually every player. Centres are logging nearly 30 per cent more assists than they did a decade ago. One of them, the 211cm Nikola Jokić, may have the best court vision in the NBA.
Centres are also taking more than four times as many three-point shots as they were 10 years ago. Power forwards have become long-range bombers, too; a whopping 40 per cent of their shot attempts are now three-pointers.
NBA gameplay has been transformed by these sharpshooting big men. “It used to be that there was always a non-shooting specialist on the court,” Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, tells me.
Usually, this person would be a pure rebounder or rim protector. Teams could rest their stars by having them defend such players, or design defensive schemes to make sure that the ball ended up in a non-shooter’s hands.
Magic Johnson at 206cm tall played point guard. AP
Now every team has five shooters on the floor, Cuban explains. “Guys have to work harder on defence. They have to scramble more.”
After Steph Curry and his imitators started shooting from the logo zones way beyond the three-point line about 10 years ago, the space defenders had to scramble across grew much larger.
More than half of these ultra-deep-shot attempts miss, and many clang violently off the rim, leading to long rebounds and quicker transitions.
Thanks to this shift, and the NBA’s earlier decision to shorten the time by which a team must advance to half-court after gaining possession, the league’s pace has increased dramatically
Uptick in injuries
All that speed has drawbacks. In describing today’s players as Formula 1 cars, Elliott isn’t only emphasising their acceleration. “The thing about those cars is that they’re dangerous to drive,” he says. And in recent years, wreckage has been piling up on NBA sidelines.
Players have missed more games due to injuries than in previous eras. This uptick in injuries – primarily ankle sprains, along with hamstring and calf strains – is somewhat mysterious, because NBA teams have never been more obsessed with players’ physical wellbeing. (Not that this concern springs from pure altruism. It’s just that most NBA contracts are guaranteed.)
NBA franchises previously entrusted the physical care of their players to a staff of two to three people. Most now have a training staff of at least eight – and many players also have their own personal trainers and nutritionists.
Asheesh Bedi, the chief medical officer of the National Basketball Players Association, tells me that in the olden times, “treatments in the training room were often limited to ice and ‘stim’” – short for muscle stimulation.
Now teams have gleaming sci-fi facilities, complete with whole-body cryotherapy chambers, special pools for underwater treatments, antigravity treadmills, and ultrasound machines for advanced imaging. Teams also fly private so that they can time their takeoffs to players’ sleep cycles.
When players get soft-tissue injuries, a team’s medical staff can deploy platelet-rich plasma to speed healing. On top of these efforts, the league has also shortened its preseason, and minimised back-to-back games and cross-country flights.
All of this pampering might seem to imply that today’s players have it easy. And yet, injuries are still up, and everyone in the league is trying to understand why.
One theory is that today’s players are more injury prone when they reach the NBA, because they’ve been playing in year-round travel leagues since adolescence, if not earlier.
Research has shown that Little Leaguers and cricketers who pitch or bowl too many times during their formative years can become predisposed to specific injuries, but so far, no evidence suggests that something similar is happening to young basketball players.
Perhaps the increase in injuries is instead a function of the pro game’s new physical demands.
Michael Jordan had to leap into a violent gantlet of heavy-bodied bigs when he played. AP
In 2018, researchers measured the movements of professional basketball players in Barcelona in a game setting and found that, among the 1000 or so actions that players perform during a game, some are especially hard on the body.
Jumps were obviously intense – as even casual hoopers can tell you, rough landings lead to ankle sprains. So were accelerations, all-out sprints, and decelerations. According to Elliott, the latter are most likely to give players traumatic injuries and wear and tear, especially when a player has to decelerate on short notice.
“If Luka Dončić is coming at you really hard and then he steps back, you have to try to decelerate out of nowhere, and then accelerate in some other direction” to close out, Elliott says.
“Those transitions are so hard for human bodies,” especially if an athlete already has a strain, or some asymmetry that causes him to favour one leg over the other.
The spacing of today’s game, and the sheer ubiquity of good shooters, requires players to constantly accelerate and decelerate on defence, and doing so across an 82-game season may be bringing them within range of the human body’s limits.
Teams have started strategically benching their best players, forcing the NBA to crack down with new rules intended to keep stars on the floor. Some commentators have even suggested shortening the season, but because the NBA is set to negotiate a new TV deal soon, that’s unlikely.
There is a certain kind of fan who believes the NBA reached its apex in the ’90s, if not in competition, certainly in physicality. They rightly point out that back then, the rules allowed for a much rougher style of play.
To reach the hoop, Jordan had to leap into a violent gantlet of heavy-bodied bigs – Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, and Bill Laimbeer, to name a few – who delivered hard fouls with relish.
But that’s only one kind of physicality. Today’s playing environment puts a different set of demands on a player’s body. They may not have to dodge as many elbows and clotheslines as they did in the paint of yore, but that doesn’t mean their game isn’t more dangerous.
That’s not to say that Jordan couldn’t thrive in today’s NBA. It just would have been more difficult. It would have required more from him. He might not have found it so easy to win all those rings.
Another giant in the league then was 7’7 Manute Bol, who played for the Bullets as well. In the 80s and early 90s, 7’7 Manute Bol was the tallest player in the league and 6’6 Michael Jordan was the highest flying high flyer. Hence, they had their share of mid-air collisions, often with very different results. Jordan was the first to draw blood during Manute’s early days with the Bullets.
