Scottie Pippen, That Guy From Miami and The MJ Debate

12 years ago view-show 2,653,992


Here we go again. Erin Sharoni quizzed Hall of Fame SF Scottie Pippen about his view on Lebron having the capacity to be better than Jordan. Pippen unsurprisingly stuck to his guns but he made sure to further elaborate on his stance.

“My position is still the same,…You’re talking about a very young kid who came to the game at a very young age. Statistically, he will probably be the best player at the end of the day…based on the number of years he can get in, [he’s a] super athlete, very versatile in a lot of ways…My comment was not meant to belittle the greatest player in the game—he has truly made his mark with his style, with his charisma, with his brand—but from a statistical standpoint, I think [LeBron] has great [potential] to be recognized as the best.”

I can’t see NorBel passing up Jordan as he’s more or less been the same player for three seasons straight. He’s dangerously close to being complacent with his play style which will definitely stifle his upside. Dude’s physically gifted and has good court vision but his wayward J, nonexistent post game, and lack of heart will impede him from being great.

Plus, on the other end of the spectrum, there’s always the phenomenon of people being extremely protective of Jordan’s legacy.  The MJ defense force in these situations isn’t unwarranted largely because, well, you’d be hard pressed to find a better player and heads either forget or downplay how well he played. Moreover, the younger NBA watching set didn’t grow up watching MJ. Much of his lauded abilities come off as legend since today’s kids didn’t witness his play firsthand. Thus, people get all in a tizzy anytime someone says player X has the potential to pass him. I’m confident in saying James won’t be that guy. But best believe a day will come when MJ isn’t considered the best basketball player ever. I have no idea when it’ll happen but I’m not worried about it. Number one spots aren’t meant to last forever anyway.

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