Stan van Gundy makes this point when he discusses LeBron James' idea to retire Michael Jordan's number: "It's a nice gesture, but he (Jordan) is not Jackie Robinson."
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Jordan is not Jackie
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Much like LeBron when he is playing for another team, I now wish to publicly announce to the media that in the fall of 2010, I have made the decision to retire my size 32 underwear in honor of Roy Hinson. I have yet to decide if I am going to go with 34 or 36. Greg Pruitt wore 34, so I have some real thinking to do. I may have to eat my way to 36.
I'll say what everyone's thinking: Unless there's something in this for LeBron, he ain't "retiring" his number. Van Gundy's right. Jordan is not a groundbreaker. He's a bitter old adulterer with a gambling habit who was forced to go play minor league baseball for awhile to avoid the embarrassment of being banished from the NBA. Am I right? Of course I am.
LeBron sees this simply as his attempt to mimic Jordan's switch to #45 and thus cash in on separate jersey sales. If these attempts to fool the public into spending more money on LBJ weren't so transparent, they might actually be funny.
BTW, so glad to hear Jim Rome say this week what I've been saying: LEBRON IS DISRESPECTING THE ENTIRE CAVALIERS FRANCHISE AND NEO FANS WITH HIS FLIRTATION WITH OTHER CITIES. It's the most inappropriate behavior I've seen from a NEO athlete.
Or, Marc, very possibly James is bad faith honoring Roy Hinson instead of bad faith honoring Michael Jordan. Now hear me out, my theory makes perfect sense. After he was traded, Hinson changed from his Cavaliers' 32 to the 76ers' 23. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Marc, you hate MJ? LOL
If you retire MJs number, you'd have to retire Miken (sp), Russell, Bird, Oscar, Magic, West,….you get the point.
Since each and every guy in the NBA is an untrustworthy philanderer, I have a marketing suggestion: Be totally upfront and honest with the media. Be totally upfront and honest with the fans. How, you ask? Just change everybody's number to 69.
I don't *hate* MJ, I just don't respect him as anything more than a good player who hogged the ball and made a lot of last-minute shots. One of the all-time greats? Absolutely. Worthy of having every other player retire his number? Are you INSANE?
Once again, it's all about LeBron and his quest for publicity and a billion dollars.
What a tool.
Marc, what's MJ's lifetime FG%? Give up……it's 49.7. That means he hit every other shot. LOL Ball Hog? Naw. I never said he should have his number retired….lower your blood pressure. LOL
As for Lebron…..I think he's entitled to feel that way about a player he's admired. I am not sure getting to a billion dollars makes you a tool….but I could be wrong.
Thall, no disrespect intended, but are you really that naive? To call James a "tool" is the understatement of the year.
Here, I'll prove it to you: Next season, James (wherever he's playing) says he is going to switch to number 6. Do you know who wore number 6? Bill Russell.
I rest my case.
Tool implies that he should have some sort of moral compass when it comes to making money….which often requires a certain degree of….well…..toolness, being a jerk, whatever you wanna call it. *shrug*
Actually, Thall, the very dictionary definition of a "tool" is slang for "penis." Really. Marc was extremely accurate in his assessment of James.
I don't think Michael Jordan is God. Far from it. But for the sake of this analogy, given how utterly fraudulent this James proclamation is, what he is doing is the equivalent of taking the Lord's name in vain.
I mean, this guy is just unbelievable. He's already paving the way for his escape from Cleveland, which includes a jersey number change. OK, fine. If you want to change your number for marketing purposes, then do it. Just like that Jesus thing you do with the chalk, it's all about marketing. I don't particularly care for it, but no harm, no foul.
However, he purports to be honoring the greatest guard to ever play the game by removing the jersey, and in the very next breath, he says he's going to put on the jersey of the very first black guy etched into the NBA's Mount Rushmore. Just incredible.
"Moral compass?" Thall, you actually used the term "moral compass?" With his money, James will be able to buy a compass. But this dude couldn't afford morals, even if he combined his net worth with every Swiss account in Bill Gates' portfolio.
Orlando and Sacramento have both retired the #6 – in honor of the fans…as in the sixth man. Sacramento I can understand…for a long time Arco arena was one of the toughest arenas for opponents. But Orlando? Child, please.
Besides #6, among the many other numbers retired by Sacramento are #2 for Mitch Richmond, #4 for Chris Webber and #21 for Vlade Divac.
Good Lord, they're worse than the Cavs when it comes to retiring numbers.
Bill Russell is as close to Jackie Robinson as the NBA gets. A sacred cow. All the sacred cows in India combined compared to Jordan. Nat Clifton may have been the first black guy to sign an NBA contract, but Russell was the first great black player. Only 12 months prior to Russell's first NBA game in lily-white Boston, Rosa Parks wouldn't go to the back of the bus. The guy has so many championship rings, the dude ran out of fingers and has one for his big toe.
Of all the numbers he could have chosen for playing wherever he's going to be playing, James could not have made a worse choice. None. But this egomaniac and his people are so gung-ho on self-promotion, I'll bet he doesn't have the foggiest clue. What a sham. A mockery. A shamockery.
Like Marc wrote, what a tool.
Don't call my boy a penis please.
Boy, Greg Brinda's rippin' LBJ's idea a-p-a-r-t on 850am this morning! And the callers are right on point: Who doesn't LBJ start showing some "respect" to the local folks who pay thousands of dollars each year so his butt can live in luxury, rather than "respecting" a guy who ripped out Cleveland's heart in the 90s? Seriously, does LBJ give a friggin CRAP about NE Ohio??? Makes ya wonder.
One more note on Jordan: Has any player in NBA history given a more inflammatory, revenge-filled, ungracious piece-of-crap diatribe than when he was inducted into the H.O.F. this summer? The classless dude FLEW IN PEOPLE from his past so he could intentionally mock and ridicule them. How quickly we forget, LBJ. Better find another "idol," one who's worthy of your adoration. (Shhhh…but you and I both know it's false, it's all for your own personal glorification, isn't it? You'd just LOVE for #23 to be retired league-wise, wouldn't ya, fella?)
Marc there's a great article by Mike Wilbon on Jordan's acceptance speech. In it….he SHOCKED that folks did know MJ was that petty. LOL From taking part in getting Zeke Thomas blackballed from the Dream team, to not speaking to friends if they beat in…ANYTHING, to the Steve Kerr practice punch in the eye. Jordan has ALWAYS been that petty. LOL When I heard the speech I laughed because you HAD to know he was gonna let folks have it. He's always been that way. I did not expect him to change. Would it have been nice to give the obligatory gentlemanly speech…..sure.
Bottom line: Jordan has proven over and over and over and over again that he is ONE COMPLETELY CLASSLESS DUDE. Really, there can be no argument. He cheated on his wife so many times, it cost him half his fortune. He gambled away much of his earnings. His gambling activities got his father murdered, many contend (oh, shhh, we're supposed to sweep that under the rug).
He was a good basketball player. Best ever? That's WAYYYYYYYYY open to debate. If Jerry Lucas had taken 35 shots a night, we'd be talking about HIM right now. This entire situation just shows how mentally immature LeBron is when it concerns "reality."
Marc, what, you don't think James isn't swinging from a chandelier in the Sheraton lobby with four hookers wearing leather masks as I'm typing this? Of course he is. Who cares if Jordan can't keep his pants on or keep his wallet in his pocket or was a basketball court gunner.
The point is James isn't honoring Michael Jordan. So the Jordan discussion is completely irrelevant and moot. The only thing this guy is honoring are his own jersey sales. When you're supposedly The King, and you can't even be #1 in NBA jersey sales in your own country, let alone can't even come close to #1 in NBA jersey sales in the rest of the world, then you've got to give the people a reason to buy your jersey. Again.
It's like my Iron Maiden albums. I bought them all the first time on vinyl. Then I bought them all when they came out on CD. Then I bought them all when they came out on remastered CD. Then they remastered the CDs all over again, and assured me it would sound even better than the first remaster. But it was all just slick marketing of the exact same product sold to blithering fools like me. I purchased the exact same thing four different times. Once on vinyl, three times on compact disc. The same damn thing, but in a different package. You'd have to be a freakin' service dog for the deaf to be able to hear the difference.
This, in a nutshell, is the always disingenuous LeBron James changing from number 23 to number 6. The dude is not honoring Michael Jordan. The dude is honoring Iron Maiden.