Here we go again…..a young player emerges from the shadows of the NBA and is crowned “the next Jordan.” Seriously, is there anything more damning than having your prime smothered by the greatness that was Michael Jordan? There have been greats in every major sport honestly, for every Jordan there is a Gretzky, a Rice, a Barry Bonds*(for the detractors) but it never seems as such a burden than when the NBA mentions your name and Michael Jordan.
It drove Kobe mad…now two years removed from when he probably actually should have retired, he still wanders the back court of the staples center trying to exorcise his Jordan demons. They tried to do it to Lebron and to be honest he might surpass Jordan off the court financially, he will never, ever ,ever,”evah evah evah” be MJ on the court. And to be honest I think he came to that realization a long time ago when he left Cleveland for Miami and found his inner peace dancing with Bosh and Wade, salvaging journey man bigs like the sports equivalent of Pretty Woman. He’s better off because of it and we the public hate(d) him. That is the Jordan effect parallel, kobe and lebron. Now Steph Curry finds himself at the fork in the road and it’s just all wrong.
Michael Jordan was the man without question at the peak of his career. Some could argue he’s still the man over a decade removed. You don’t have to like Michael to appreciate his athletic and financial dominance throughout the course of his professional career and to compare such an omnipotent figure to the “I am 16 going on 17” faced Steph Curry is just well, dumb. Listen if you think Jordan was just about the number in the win column than you don’t know Michael Jordan. The guy was an icon and we’re not talking about the regular season wins record or the titles just yet. What we’re talking about is the crossing up Larry Bird, dunk contest winning , battles with the Pistons MJ. By the time he was 27, Jordan had won MVP, 2 x Dunk contest champion, Rookie of the year, Defensive Player of the year, 5x All Star, An All-Star Game MVP, 2x Steals Champion (didn’t even know that was a category), and was a 3x scoring champion. By 27 he had the memorable shot over Craig Ehlo and Air Jordans I-V. Next year when Curry will be 28, MJ was doing commercials for Gatorade and winning his first of six NBA Championships. What has Steph Curry done to be compared to this?
In this social media driven age that we live in today it’s easy to get loss in the sauce. Steph is Steph, he’s a smooth shooting, quiet assassin on the court. He’s a nice guy off the court with a beautiful family. He’s a lot of things but he will never be Michael on the court or off. It takes a special athlete to become a brand, that’s why it hasn’t happened often. And if we’re being honest not even Jesus himself could help Under Armor over take Nike in the shoe game. On the court he’s a great player and probably one of the best shooters of all time but he will never be the athletic specimen that was Michael Jordan or tenacious asshole. I have talked about cross era comparisons before and how detrimental they are to athletes Steph is great, but Jordan he is not and frankly we should all be okay with that going forward.
