With everyone from the Old Spice guy to President Obama weighing in on “The Decision”, the greatest player of all time has finally given us his thoughts on Lebron James joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.
After playing in a celebrity golf tournament, Michael Jordan himself finally weighed in on the NBA’s newest Big Three. According to ESPN, His Airness was quoted as saying:
There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’
Jordan went on to add:
But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.
So MJ basically said what we’ve all been thinking since Lebron decided to take his talents to South Beach, there’s no way in hell that Jordan would have ever done something like that. To be the best, you have to beat the best, and Jordan basically said that himself at the end of his quote.
Jordan was careful to not call out the Big Three for joining together, after all he is still the owner of an NBA franchise, and the last thing he wants to see is Miami beat his Bobcats by 40+, but he did allude to the fact that the NBA today is different than when he played. The players are not as competitive as they were during his day, for the most part the best players in the league are friends. I say for the most part because I don’t think Kobe is really friends with anyone but himself, his basketball and his rings, but that’s beside the point.
The fact is, as even Jordan himself said, there’s nothing wrong with what Lebron did. He’s a grown man, he makes his own decisions and he blazes his own trail. Despite what everyone wants, he doesn’t have to follow in MJ’s footsteps, or Magic’s or anyone else that came before him, because when you’re as talented as Lebron or D-Wade or Kobe, you’re not out to follow another players legacy, you want to create your own.
Nobody understands that better than Michael Jordan, who created the ultimate legacy before hanging it up for good (I think). I’ve been saying for weeks, my biggest issue with “The Decision” was the way Lebron left Cleveland, showing little remorse or respect for the franchise who gave him his first seven years in the NBA.
Him going to Miami wasn’t and isn’t an issue, and to most people, it’s getting kind of annoying that this is still coming up. People are ready to either hate or love the Heat, but based on what they do on the basketball court, not what’s going on in the news.
The fact of the matter is, whether you agree or not, Lebron James is a member of the Miami Heat. “The Decision” was made two weeks ago, and now focus should be on what is going to happen on the court once the first jump ball is tossed in late October.
I can’t speak for anyone else on the BSO staff, but this is the last article you’ll get from me on Lebrons choice to go to Miami. It’s done, he’s been signed and delivered, and now we wait to see if he and his two new star teammates can dethrone the Lakers and win an NBA title. Because with all of this hype, criticism and analysis of the Big Three, anything short of an NBA Championship is a colossal failure, plain and simple.
So no more Lebron talk, no more “Decision” analysis, no more opinions on whether he was right or wrong. The next time we discuss what happened with Lebron James should be in June of 2011, when we know whether or not he was able to finally get that first ring.
Or until Dan Gilbert does something crazy again, whichever comes first.
Belal Abdelfattah is BSO’s newest writer and comes from a long background in sports writing at the Sports Authority Blog and The Block Radio. You can check out his weekly radio show OSD Radio at http://tinyurl.com/OSDRadio or follow Belal on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/belal_a