Basketball, in terms of sports, is relatively young. It was invented in the 1890s by James Naismith. The game evolved and grew from a small YMCA game into multiple professional leagues and a worldwide sport. The biggest professional league is the National Basketball Association or the NBA. Many people have played in this league since the 1940s.
The NBA struggled for many years to become a popular pro sports league. It had its times in the 1960s with the Celtics. But the league’s fame wasn’t solidified until 1980 with the advent of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
Larry and Magic were two rookies who had previously battled in the NCAA for the championship the year before. Magic defeated Larry playing for Michigan State. Magic and Bird created a dazzling rivalry between Magic’s Lakers and Bird’s Celtics. These teams battled for years to win the NBA Finals, the most prestigio
us championship in basketball.
These two were undoubtedly the greatest basketball players until the 1990s. During the 1984 NBA draft, a young man from UNC was drafted to the Chicago Bulls. He had won an NCAA championship in 1982. His name was Michael Jordan.
He was in the shadows of Magic and Bird during the rest of the 80s, but he was young and upcoming and he was going to be great. He got his chance in 1991. After losing the previous year in the Eastern Conference finals to the Detroit Pistons, he hired a new weightlifting coach and went to work.
That next season he was unstoppable. He averaged 31.5 points per game, 6. rebounds per game and scored 2580 points during the regular season. This propelled him to the NBA Finals win and being awarded the Most Valuable Player award.
He continued to win two more finals in 1992 and 1993. During the 1993 finals, Michaels dad died. His father was a very big baseball fan, leading Jordan to retire from basketball and try to play baseball. He only lasted 1 season playing in the minor leagues before deciding to come back to the NBA.
Midway through the 1994-95 season, Jordan rejoined the Bulls. He came too late and the bulls did not make it to the finals. But in the following three seasons, they won three NBA Finals. After winning the 1998 Finals he retired for the second time, then came back in 2001 to play with the Washington Wizards for two seasons and took his lasting retirement in the 2003 season.
Since Michael Jordan’s retirement, there have been many greats to play in the league. Some of these include Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Stephen Curry just to name a few.
These players have been very influential to basketball. Kobe won 5 NBA finals, LeBron has won 4 and Curry has won 4 as well. In more recent years, Lebron and Curry have battled back and forth for the Finals.
LeBron has reached 10 Finals, making eight consecutive appearances from 2011 to 2018. Despite being in some great finals, he has lost more finals than he has won. Lebron is a really really good player, but has not done what Michael did in his career. Michael spent less time in the league and accomplished more than LeBron has and LeBron is still playing.
Both of these players are great, but Michael is the greatest. He had a kill or be killed instinct on the court that led him to a stellar career. He pushed himself so hard, craved winning so much, that he came out of retirement twice out of a necessity of trying to quench his thirst for winning, he is still thirsty.
All stats are from ESPN
