That season's Phoenix Suns, with the MVP in Charles Barkley, gagged away Game 6 in Phoenix - with Game 7 looming there - before John Paxson's title-clinching triple. New York led the 1993 conference finals over Chicago 2-0. The Portland Trail Blazers had the 1992 Finals knotted 2-2 with Game 5 in Portland. No one tested them in 19 - the first titles of Chicago's unprecedented separate three-peats.īut in 1992, the New York Knicks took arguably the best Jordan team ever to seven games in the second round. The Chicago Bulls were invincible in two of Jordan's six title runs. The aura of invincibility did not cocoon Jordan only in hindsight. He was indomitable in a way James can never be. Lots of team executives in that age cohort - dispassionate talent evaluators in their work - use different language and standards discussing Jordan's greatness. I came of age as a fan in the Jordan era. Jordan has something LeBron lacks, and will remain untouchable, more god than human.Īnd I get it. "LeBron is not the guy that wants to take that last shot." Nichols gives it one more try: "But he's done it more than the other guy!" Pippen dismisses the numbers as merely proof that LeBron has played too many close games. Nichols refers to the statistics on the screen: "The numbers say has done it more often than Jordan." "We're talking about making the shot," McGrady responds. "The reason being," McGrady says, "LeBron's first thought is, 'I'm gonna make the right basketball play.'" They nominate players they would trust more than LeBron with the game on the line: Reggie Miller, Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant, Joe Johnson. Pippen smiles, sighs, and tells McGrady to answer first. They can barely express how preposterous they find the question. The reactions of Pippen and McGrady are telling. Nichols prodded Tracy McGrady and Scottie Pippen: Was Jordan really more "clutch" than LeBron? Rachel Nichols, host of The Jump, displayed Jordan and James' respective numbers on go-ahead shots in the last five seconds of the fourth quarter and overtime in playoff games. That gave LeBron one more postseason walk-off shot than Michael Jordan, who of course played fewer playoff games than LeBron - 81 fewer after James and the Los Angeles Lakers clinched the franchise's 17th NBA title Sunday. There is an amazing clip from ESPN's The Jump in April 2018, the day after LeBron James' fourth career postseason game-winning buzzer-beater - a 3-pointer that put his Cleveland Cavaliers up 3-2 in their first-round series against the Indiana Pacers. Michael Jordan: Why the GOAT debate is different now You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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