Posted on Wed, Jun. 11, 2008
By ARMANDO SALGUERO
The Miami Herald
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 10: Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers matches up against Ray Allen #20 of the Boston Celtics in Game Three of the 2008 NBA Finals on June 10, 2008 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images)
If he didn't start the debate, Kobe Bryant certainly joined in when he told a national TV audience he wants ``to be the best, simple and plain.''
Bryant added to his case for being considered the NBA's all-time greatest player by scoring nine points in the final seven minutes to lift the Lakers to a Game 3 victory over Boston in the NBA Finals.
The championship series renews Thursday and, no doubt, so shall Bryant's reach for the individual title he apparently covets as much as another championship.
And there is little argument Kobe Bryant deserves to be in the theoretical debate over who is the NBA's all-time greatest player. By the time he is finished, Bryant might indeed be right there with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell and Julius Erving and some others.
But that is as far as Bryant has gotten. He is merely in the conversation. He is not anywhere near being the subject of that conversation.
That would be Michael Jordan.
Still.
It has been only a decade since Jordan left the Chicago Bulls at the end of the team's second three-peat in eight years. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, the people who cover the NBA today or fancy themselves experts on the sport are obsessed with identifying Air's heir.
That is why Vince Carter and Dwyane Wade and LeBron James ebb and flow in popularity. It seems when any is making a push for an NBA title, he must logically be the next Michael Jordan.
None is, of course. And neither is Kobe.
THE NEXT BIG THING
He is the next big thing -- again -- because his team is in the NBA Finals again.
Sure, you heard talk of Kobe taking Jordan's mantle when the Lakers won three consecutive titles earlier this decade, but that soon faded, didn't it?
When Shaquille O'Neal was dealt to the Heat, when the Lakers dropped out of contention and Bryant got busy pleading innocent to sexual assault charges or pleading to be traded, there wasn't a grand debate about him being better than Jordan.
But now Bryant is hot again because he is in living rooms all across America again. Suddenly we remember that he is a gifted player because he is leading a good team to the title's doorstep.
Suddenly we remember he once scored 81 points in a game, and we believe that anoints him the next Jordan.
But what about the things we seem to forget?
Those 81 points, though impressive, came against a 55-loss Toronto team with no All-Star on the roster. When Jordan scored 63 points against Boston, it came in the playoffs, against the eventual world champions, after which Bird compared Jordan to God.
It has become easy in today's shrinking-planet Internet age to lift up the now and dismiss yesterday. It has become easy to view things in a vacuum of current events, with little regard for history.
But let me jar your memory about Michael Jordan.
In December 1987, he scored 44 points against Houston and, while doing so, blocked shots by Hakeem Olajuwan and Ralph Sampson and finished the game with more blocks than the two 7-footers combined.
In May 1989, the Pistons were headed toward the NBA title, but Jordan didn't know that at the time. He guaranteed that the upstart Bulls would win Game 1 of their Eastern Conference playoff series against Detroit.
They did.
In the 1993 NBA Finals, Jordan scored at least 40 points in four consecutive games. The Bulls beat Phoenix.
MEMORABLE MOMENT
In only his fifth game back from an 18-month baseball hiatus, Jordan traveled to Madison Square Garden and scored 55 against the Knicks. With the game at stake, Jordan rose for a shot and instead passed to Bulls center Bill Wennington, who converted an open, game-winning layup.
''Michael is probably the only player in the world who can score 55 points and his biggest play of the game is a pass,'' Wennington said.
That was, by the way, Jordan floating toward the rim in the 1991 Finals against Los Angeles when two Lakers met him mid-flight. Jordan, tongue wagging, shifted the ball from his right hand to his left hand while the two defenders returned to Earth.
Still above the rim, Jordan laid the ball in, and the Bulls' championship dynasty was born.
The run ended in June 1998 when Jordan stole the ball and connected on a championship-winning jump shot against Utah. Jordan held the follow-through pose for a memorable, magical moment.
It was amazing then. It remains amazing today.
So no one should forget -- not even when we're watching Kobe Bryant or the next guy whose goal is to be the greatest player of all time.
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