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Michael Jordan checks in at No. 1 in The Athletic’s Top 75 list

hoopshype
·5 min read
1

This ranking is not in dispute. It’s a formality, a wave of the hand, a tip of the cap, an admittance of the obvious. The sky is blue. The earth is round. Michael Jordan, No. 1 on The Athletic’s NBA 75. The best player in the 75-year history of the NBA. Case closed. There is no next. There is only one, and it’s Jordan.
Source: Jon Greenberg @ The Athletic

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Joe Vardon @joevardon
Michael Jordan. Number One, ⁦@The Athletic⁩ theathletic.com/3133484/2022/0… – 10:48 AM

David Aldridge @davidaldridgedc
His was a game of fundamentals, fueled by a will not only to win, but to dominate. He conquered a city, a league, & sports. He wanted, and got, everything.
He is Michael Jordan, Number 1 on our list at @TheAthletic of the top 75 NBA players of all time: bit.ly/3BtvwOk – 9:29 AM

Justin Kubatko @jkubatko
Luka Doncic last night:
✅ 49 PTS
✅ 15 REB
✅ 8 AST
Doncic is averaging 35.4 PPG, 10.3 RPG, and 9.8 APG over his last 10 games.
He’s the fourth player in NBA history to record at least 350p/100r/75a over a 10-game span (Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, and Russell Westbrook). pic.twitter.com/lo9wmhPVjD – 9:01 AM

Justin Kubatko @jkubatko
Luka Doncic tonight:
✅ 49 PTS
✅ 15 REB
✅ 8 AST
Doncic is averaging 35.4 PPG, 10.3 RPG, and 9.8 APG over his last 10 games.
He’s the fourth player in NBA history to record at least 350p/100r/75a over a 10-game span (Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, and Russell Westbrook). pic.twitter.com/yEddly4FUI – 10:36 PM

Roland Lazenby @lazenby
\’Michael Jordan: The Life\’ by Roland Lazenby-​5 books every Michael Jordan fan needs to read | The Times of India timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/boo… – 6:37 PM

Matt Williams @StatsWilliams
DeMar DeRozan has made 259 shots from the mid-range this season, 103 more than the next closest player in Devin Booker (156).
DeRozan is the first player to make 100+ more mid-range shots than any other player at the All-Star Break since Michael Jordan in 1996-97. – 2:56 PM

Chris Palmer @ChrisPalmerNBA
Where does Michael Jordan rank all-time in NBA history? – 2:06 PM

KC Johnson @KCJHoop
To celebrate his 59th birthday, Michael Jordan is working out to sign a 10-day contract because he heard DeMar DeRozan is 3 games shy of his franchise record for consecutive 30-point games.
Just kidding.
I think. – 10:14 AM

Justin Kubatko @jkubatko
DeMar DeRozan (38p/6r/6a) and Coby White (31p/5r/6a) are just the second duo in @Chicago Bulls history to each record at least 30p/5r/5a in the same game.
They join Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, who did so five times. pic.twitter.com/YWgOSvENpb – 9:51 AM

Justin Kubatko @jkubatko
Nikola Jokic last night:
✅ 35 PTS
✅ 17 REB
✅ 8 AST
Jokic has recorded at least 20p/10r/5a in each of his last eight games, breaking a tie with Larry Bird (1982), Michael Jordan (1989), and Kevin Durant (2016) for the longest such streak since the ABA-NBA merger. pic.twitter.com/Lu7ofXjCof – 9:01 AM

Trey Kerby @treykerby
Delighted to be watching each and every Knicks fan meltdown on Michael Jordan’s birthday. – 8:24 AM

Justin Kubatko @jkubatko
🎂 Happy 59th birthday to Michael Jordan!
📊 1072 GP, 30.1 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 5.3 APG
🎯 49.7 FG%, 32.7 3P%, 83.5 FT%
⭐️ 14x (1985-1993, 1996-1998, 2002, 2003)
🏆 5x MVP, 6x FMVP, 1985 ROY, 1988 DPOY
💍 6x (1991-1993, 1996-1998)
🐐 1x pic.twitter.com/2hdJTeFTwz – 8:01 AM

Brandon Rahbar @BrandonRahbar
Lindy Waters III’s first two shots in the NBA: a made 3 and a dunk.
Michael Jordan missed 12,345 shots in his career.
Lindy Waters III has missed 0. – 8:38 PM

Sean Deveney @SeanDeveney
Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol — Zach LaVine gave @amathur25 his all-time Bulls starting 5.
More at @HeavySan :
heavy.com/sports/chicago… – 9:11 PM

More on this storyline

“He checks all the boxes, and nobody else checks every box,” said veteran Jordan chronicler, journalist and author Sam Smith. This isn’t new ground for him. Smith actually wrote a book about Jordan titled “There Is No Next.” Smith also wrote the seminal 1992 book “The Jordan Rules,” which humanized and demythologized Jordan at the beginning of his incredible run of winning six NBA titles in two symmetrical three-peats. -via The Athletic / February 18, 2022

But in the “image is everything” era when Jordan made exponentially more money outside of basketball from endorsements, no one backed it up on the court like Jordan. He created a new world in both sports marketing and sports myth-making. “In tennis or golf or boxing, the mystique is the individual,” Jordan’s agent David Falk said to Henry Louis Gates Jr. in a 1998 New Yorker story. “Whereas no matter how great Bill Russell or Bob Cousy was, it was the Celtics dynasty, it was always institutional. Michael changed all that. Singlehanded.” -via The Athletic / February 18, 2022

Steve Kerr won three titles with Jordan, another two with David Robinson and Tim Duncan and then three more as a coach with the Warriors. He’s played and coached against the best players in the league since the late 1980s. During the 2017 postseason, he joked about the “back in my day” philosophy comparing champions of yesterday to the unworthy teams of the present. “The game gets worse as time goes on,” he said. “Players are less talented than they used to be. The guys in the ’50s would’ve destroyed everybody. It’s weird how human evolution goes in reverse in sports. Players get weaker, smaller, less skilled. I don’t know. I can’t explain it.” -via The Athletic / February 18, 2022