A total of 557 texts in a 12-hour window couldn't solve the never-ending debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
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That's the thread I engaged with my best friend and his two younger brothers in the aftermath of the Cavs' Game 1 loss to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday. When the trailer fired up for the 10-part Netflix and ESPN series "The Last Dance," which will chronicle the Bulls' 1990s run to six NBA championships, the texts started again.
They no doubt will fire up one more time when the Cavs try to dig out of a 2-0 hole against the Celtics in Game 3 on Saturday.
IT'S HAPPENING. #MichaelJordan #TheLastDance https://t.co/d3EDwt2LKw pic.twitter.com/MapBHmVwSg
— ESPN Films 30 for 30 (@30for30) May 15, 2018
The 557 texts ran through the usual talking points in that debate — who had better stats, who had more help, who has the better NBA Finals record. They spun into the usual friendly insults, emojis, GIFs and vicious back-and-forth talk about which player creates more drama.
They drifted into an argument that compared Dave Corzine to Will Ferrell in the legendary "SNL" Blue Oyster Cult skit, through the one about James carrying Donyell Marshall and Larry Hughes to the NBA Finals, and effortlessly back to those Finals records — 6-0 for MJ and 3-5 for LeBron — before the Warriors-Rockets game picked up. So we just had to rank the Warriors and all of the teams James played in the NBA Finals against all of the teams Jordan played in the NBA Finals.
No box score will be spared. Flu Game. The Decision. Down 3-1. No Game 7. We're 557 texts in and no closer to a resolution. It might be old and tired, but it's not going away. So we'll pick this up tomorrow. And after LeBron's next big game. Then his next bad game.
It's not so much a debate anymore as a vindictive argument in which both sides are entrenched with the sole focus of destroying the other side without listening. You see that at the national level a little too much.
In 2015, we wrote a guide for the MJ vs. LeBron debate, and most of the talking points have held up. It's five simple rules. Put a ring on it. Take it off. Know it's different times, different players. Don't make up arguments. Have fun with it.
Most of that has held up with one exception. That "have fun" part has been destroyed — especially on social media. Now the move is to nitpick Jordan's legacy, which has been reduced to just six championships, and those championships somehow don't matter as much because of the competition in the 1990s. That's a poor strategy.
There is no point in trying to tear down what Jordan did because it's over. It's not just the six championships and six NBA Finals MVPs. It's the Slam Dunk Contests, the five MVP awards, the worldwide impact with the 1992 Dream Team, and of, course, the shoes. You remember that commercial. No player has had a bigger impact on boosting the game's popularity than MJ.
The Bulls were invincible through those six NBA Finals runs, and Jordan, who just wanted to kick your ass on both sides of the court, was leading the charge. When you try to devalue that, just know you're barking at a micro-generation born between 1977 and 1983, between Generation X and millennials — one that's been dubbed Xennial (whatever the hell that is) — and you're going to get some blowback.
I'm in that group. We grew up with a sports Mount Rushmore that had Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Montana and Barry Bonds. We wish we could put Bo Jackson on there, too.
We're the ones that grew up waiting for that "NBA on NBC" theme before the big weekend matchups. We're the ones who watched Jordan prevent a third of that Dream Team — John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing — from winning championship by beating them in the NBA playoffs. We're the ones that didn't get Bo for long enough, had to put an asterisk next to Bonds and replaced Montana with Tom Brady after the fifth Super Bowl. There is nobody even close to Gretzky, but James is the first real threat to supplant Jordan.
That threat is real. James is the most impressive blend of speed, power, skill and athleticism I've ever seen on a basketball court. He's as captivating as ever in his latest chapter with the Cavaliers, and there is still time to tack on a few more NBA championships to that resume in an attempt to close in on that number.
James might not get to six. In some people's minds, he might not have to. If you want to make the argument that James is the best player now, then that's fine. Then there's no need to tweet or text after a buzzer-beater against the Pacers or a blowout loss to the Celtics. It's already done, right?
Maybe let James' accomplishments speak for themselves and enjoy him while he's still around. When it's over, then you can take inventory and make the Jordan comparisons once and for all. That's the route I've taken all along.
Four years ago, this wasn't close. Now, it's a heated conversation. If James keeps going to the NBA Finals and adds a ring or two, then the debate will change again. That's all fair.
The best advice? Leave MJ alone in the meantime. It's OK to look back on that legacy and remember the aura of invincibility that accompanied those Bulls teams. If you want to say Jordan was a hyper-competitive, obsessive bully who punched Steve Kerr in the face, that's your choice.
We chose to see Jordan as the kid who was cut from his high school team (even if he really wasn't) and evolved into the most ferocious competitor ever — the one who never lost in the NBA Finals. We knew he wanted to be like. You remember that commercial, too.
If you can't respect that, then, well, too bad. That's how these arguments get off the rails quick, 557-text threads that make great points on both sides but end up with Corzine, Marshall and the rings. We're back where we started, and more texts are flooding in.
Maybe just watch James instead. Then watch "The Last Dance" next year on Netflix. Enjoy both, but most of all, enjoy James while he's still playing. There will be plenty of time to text later until the next player comes along with the next generation.
That's a big if, though. We're not sure if there will ever be enough room for a third in this debate.
