Also for me personally, I don't want Tiger to break Jack's record. OSU has arguably the greatest golfer (Nicklaus), college football player (Archie Griffin), and track athlete (Jesse Owens) of all-time...let's keep it that way.

Greatest golfer is between Palmer, Nicklaus, and Woods. Each held their own generation and helped pave the way for the next.

Who the fuck cares about track?

Vonck/lawschoolallstar

Malone doesn't play D and had Stockton feeding him easy points.

Miller? He's not even a sure HOFer.

Olajuwon, like most centers, only had a few years in which his game fully materialized and the Rockets won 2 'ships then. They never faced the Bulls to win unfortunately.

Drexler & Olajuwon could beat MJ & Pippen. Drexler on his own without much help doesn't compare.

Ewing - Knicks went to the finals with him riding the pine. Good center, but not good enough with only role players around him during his prime. John Starks? You gotta be fucking kidding me.

Barkley - took too many plays off. He neglected far too many of the little things that would help the team.

Extras: MJ usually got beat by Showtime/Magic's Lakers. MJ only beat a HIV Magic. MJ wasn't beating Bird in glory days (Bird started breaking down kinda early in his career). So after the Magic/Bird era, the best duo MJ/Pippen beat was Malone and Stockton. No single player was all that great either. There wasn't even anyone close at a non-center position because the talent level was so low. Today, we have Wade, Lebron, and Kobe. That's equivalent to Bird, Magic, and MJ. Kobe seems to be the best of the current 3. Magic was likely the best of the old 3 (even with the HIV shortened career).

Pippen was about as good as any of MJ's main rivals. MJ lucked out.

In 1996 when the greatest players of the century were announced and voted on a full ELEVEN were still playing. If anything, the competition was better then.

I do blame Jordan for the isolation offense that all the wannabes started to use when they tried to emulate him. Destroyed the game.

Edit: Youtube link for the "fuck you" and I'll 180 you.

Blazers with probably the most talent amassed on a team other than the "Dream Team" on the verge of knocking out in-his-prime Shaq and young sidekick Kobe. However, 'sheed couldn't avoid T's and the Blazers imploded. Fail.

Sac Kings created another international ensemble cast, smoking everyone all season long and then taking the Lakers to 7 games and leading by double figures in the mid-4th quarter. Gave Shaq one of his signature performances, right after he called them the "Sacremento Queens". Fail.

Dallas-PHX playoff series in 2005 where both teams were in top offensive form and elevated the game (artistically) to new heights. Of course, Dallas came up short against a Shaq/Wade Heat squad and looked horrible in the Finals. Fail.

Lebron James in the 2007 playoffs, turning in some huge performances and working extremely well with teammates. This was the highest Lebron would get, after being pwned by the Spurs in the Finals. Cleveland is now headed back to the lottery and LBJ moved on. Fail.

I can't get excited about these Celtic and Laker teams. They're proficient, but it would be a major stretch to say the quality brings out an emotional reaction. They know how to win, they have sufficient talent, but they also have glaring weaknesses and the sum is no greater than the individual parts.

Edit: To clarify, I think the Lakers' "glaring weakness" is that you can attack Fisher with a speedy PG. I can see why some people might not consider this a glaring weakness, because Fisher has never come close to costing the Lakers a title in the Finals. However, I'd point to some playoff losses (e.g. vs San Antonio) that back this up. I can see why others would disagree and say that LAL are a "complete" team.

Yes, I was a Mormon in Utah, a raging John Stockton troll, and I wasn't even disappointed when Mike won the game.

EDIT: Zombie Sonics to me still. Seattle is by far the worst sports city in the country. They lost their only championship team, and now fuckers go around wearing soccer jerseys. There is a huge beta cloud over the city.

Cleveland's looking at 3 last place teams for the next few years. They were raped by John Elway in an AFC title game, culminating in one of the greatest drives ever (maybe Elway's career signature performance). They lost the World Series in the 9th inning to a recent expansion team (at the time). Then a middle school kid from NJ reaches out and turns Derek Jeter's double into a game winning HR. I don't think it can get worse than these things.

Plus, have you ever been to Cleveland? Sort of like Detroit Lite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUwDIn7TL_Y

Damn, Malone had a great game. Just goes to prove Michael couldn't be stopped. Byron Russel was on Jordan the whole game. Russel was one of the premier defensive players in the league at the time. Jordan schooled him.

Edit: That shot at the 4:00 mark is just fucking legendary. I remember watching that shit and actually rooting for Jordan.

Old man scores 51.

And I remember thinking that Pippen being sick/hurt was going to screw up the series. I think he got hurt around game 3 or 4? Jordan pwned any doubts.

Edit: After watching this 10 times, I don't think there was any force behind his hand touching Russell's leg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys15yTUnRGM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVC3DtgoYZY&feature=related

This was against the 05-06 Raptors who finished 21-60. One of the worst teams not only that year, but probably in the bottom 2% in league history.

POWNED=You

This is more impressive anyway. Kobe scored 81 when he was 28.

The ballhog point is rather moot considering MJ jacked it up on nights too. He was simply never good enough to go for 80. Wilt impressed big time, but his talent largely gets overshadowed by the mere fact that his size overwhelmed other teams. The NBA created new rules to limit Wilt's dominance. He was easily the most dominant player ever.

During MJ's era, the NBA started giving the stars calls. They helped facilitate MJ's greatness. The NBA wasn't so kind to Wilt.

Kobe is probably a little ahead of Shaq on the all time list at this point, somewhere in the lower half of the top 10. However, in 2 years he could comfortably be in the top 3-5, even without necessarily winning another title. He'll probably pass Bird and possibly pass Magic Johnson. MJ is a hard comparison, because he left basketball twice--once at his prime for essentially 2 seasons and again when he was still MVP level. He passed up at least a few rings and MVP awards. MJ also played college ball for a few seasons and played alongside Pippen--while great, he was no Shaq. To me, it's an apples and oranges comparison between MJ and Kobe.

Not known for his defense, Rose's best moment defensively came during the 1997?1998 season, when Rose emerged as a defensive stopper on Michael Jordan in the Eastern Conference Finals, though the Bulls pulled out the series in seven games.

Jalen Rose was never known for his defense. Give Kobe credit for taking and hitting the shots, but as you'd expect, he was wide open for the vast majority of those shots. He had a crazy shooting night against a horrible team. Still a great player, but you can't elevate him over Jordan because of a single game or even a single season.

I'm not saying the 81 makes Kobe better, but his body of work impresses more than MJ's. Everyone celebrated MJ and aided him in being great. It's not the same for Kobe, yet he plays at a higher level imo. He's having surgery on his knee and had a messed up index finger on his shooting hand, yet he still managed to carry LA to a 'ship this year. Kobe modified his release to enable him to play with his bum finger and did so at a high level. Talk about elevating your game.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/specials/fortunate50-2010/