Michael's Right... Well Sort Of

Charles Klein

When I first heard the audio yesterday I found myself in whole-hearted agreement with Michael Jordan, until I had the time to actually think about what he actually said.

"There's no way, with hindsight, I would've ever called up Larry (Bird), called up Magic (Johnson) and said, 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team.'

I disagree with this on a few different grounds. Let me just get this out of the way, once and for all, so we never have to talk about it again. CHRIS BOSH IS NOT ON THE SAME LEVEL AS LEBRON JAMES, DWAYNE WADE, MAGIC JOHNSON OR LARRY BIRD. Players like Bosh come around fairly often and I would not put him in the same strata as any of those players. 


What Michael appears to be heavily implying through his comments is that he did it all by himself in Chicago when in fact that is a bit too much revisionist history. Jordan did not win anything with the Bulls until they brought in Scottie Pippen, voted by NBA players as one of the 50 best basketball players of all-time. Not only that, Jordan had the best rebounder in the game with Dennis Rodman, one of the best foreign players in Tony Kukoc, etc. etc. The point is, as much as other analysts may try to claim otherwise, basketball is a team game. 


I guess I was so eager for someone else to further lambaste the so-called 'King' that at first brush I was more than happy to hear that Jordan had bashed James' move to Miami. It further underscores how far James has to go if he wants entrance into basketball's Mount Olympus. While the analogy does not work so well with Bosh, it does with Dwayne Wade. 


Speaking of the original gangsta on South Beach, Wade made some pretty controversial statements yesterday, for which he later apologized. Wade said that if the Heat lose more than three games consecutively that the media will make it "seem like the world has crashed down. You all are going to make it seem like the World Trade has just went down again." 


Someone please dial 9-1-1, we need someone to please help extract Dwayne Wade's foot from his mouth.


Wade apologized today for his comments, stating "I was simply trying to say that losing a few basketball games should not be compared to a real catastrophe. He then sincerely apologized, "to anyone who found my references to the World Trade Center to be insensitive or offensive.''

So far in barely over a week the big three in Miami have made Boston's big three look like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa by comparison.


One thing has already proven to be true about the NBA's newest 'Big Three' and that is, if nothing else, made Miami Heat basketball a whole lot more interesting.