Late in the day and I’m finally getting to Bill Simmons/Malcolm Gladwell’s ESPN.com “debate.” I am enjoying it, by the way.
*Note: According to ESPN.com, debate is now defined as lovefest between writers-cum-B-List celebrities.
Not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, Simmons and Gladwell are each unique and talented. On the other hand, each is so obviously in love with their own writing that their respective conclusions become impossible to stomach. Sometimes you want to hail them as genius, sometimes you want them beaten with a shovel. Which is fine. At least they try.
But as expected, Simmons’ incomparable Michael Jordan-worship spills out in his diatribes about success and eras. To wit:
If you’re riding the whole “never had a peer to challenge him” angle, then there’s a better example: Michael Jordan. He climbed the mountain in 1991, then Bird retired, Magic retired and the Bad Boy Pistons got old. The media force-fed him Clyde Drexler as a “rival;” he destroyed Drexler with such manic fury during the ’92 Finals and ’92 Dream Team practices that Clyde’s career went into a tailspin.
This is beyond ridiculous, it is patently untrue.
- I have said before, Jordan and Drexler did not guard one another in the 1992 Finals, their only playoff meeting; Terry Porter took Jordan, Clyde guarded Pippen.
- Bulls-Blazers 1992 is actually one of the most underrated Finals of all time. Yes, Jordan averaged more than 35, up from his season average of 30 and played spectacularly. Clyde averaged 26/7/7, which was also up from his season averages. Jordan was a better player than Clyde, no one disputes this. But if we’re actually arguing whether Grant & Pippen were better than Porter & Kersey, well, you win.
- The Dream Team memory is a figment of imagination. With Stockton and Magic both injured, Jordan and Drexler shared backcourt minutes and carried the U.S. to a title.
- Drexler suffered an injury in 1993, playing in only 49 games. With the advancing age of the Blazers, the team never contended again. Drexler and never was as good as his peak of 1992. Not as good as Jordan, sure, but a respectable decline commensurate with his age, which really didn’t begin until 1995, the season he was shipped to Houston. And decidedly not a tailspin.
No, perhaps he wasn’t the perfect foil for Jordan – no one was. This has more to do, perhaps, with league parity than Jordan’s godliness. And more to do, perhaps, with the need to compare every great player’s career arc to Bird and Magic, sharing the spotlight. Is there supposed to be a center to rival Shaquille O’Neal’s Hall of Fame career? Is it Duncna? Who?
Though it’s a throwaway sentence in Simmons’ latest column, there is no use for him to prop this myth up. Jordan was great on his own terms, and the need to denigrate Drexler, Olajuwon, Richmond, Miller – anyone - is ridiculous. Continuing to promulgate this nonsense simply for added attest of Jordan’s greatness, in fact, seems pathetic.
Rather than celebrate the greatness of these players who weren’t quite at Jordan’s level, Simmons habitually scoffs at them, as if the mere mention of their skill is an affront to Michael and his fans. Wrong. Their success actually shows how great Michael Jordan was. Who’s to say Drexler and Richmond aren’t closer comps to Bryant or Wade than even Jordan, anyway?
