Colin Cowherd’s Michael Jordan critique is a child’s argument against the GOAT
I’m sorry, what did he just say?
The argument over who is the GOAT of the NBA has been an argument that will probably never die, unless people start making the same type of argument broadcaster Colin Cowherd just made.
Colin Cowherd on MJ: "He tried baseball. He failed. He tried ownership. He was awful. He tried the Wizards. It bombed. Everybody understand, take out Scottie Pippen & Phil Jackson, this whole Michael Jordan mythology is sort of just that." pic.twitter.com/0r7E02uyNs… https://t.co/dXEhPaMP5Y
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) March 18, 2023
“So, he tried baseball. He failed. He tried ownership, he was awful. He tried the Wizards, it bombed.”
Cowherd added, “Everybody understand, take out Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson — this whole Michael Jordan mythology is sort of just that.”
Hear that everyone? Teammates. Michael Jordan would never have won 6 titles without having teammates. Oh, and a coach.
And of course, conflating his basketball career with his attempt at a baseball career and franchise owner would only make sense if he also argued that bringing Pippen and Jackson on the road in the minor leagues, or having them sit on the board of the Charlotte Hornets, would have positively altered Jordan’s trajectory in both cases.
New Michael Jordan memes just dropped. pic.twitter.com/s3V9x4miYy
— Complex Sneakers (@ComplexSneakers) March 4, 2023
First, let’s all be honest here about what makes a championship team in the NBA – having more than one good player. And a competent coach doesn’t hurt. Larry Bird didn’t win without Robert Parish. Magic Johnson never won without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. KC Jones and Pat Riley were no slouches either.
With the emphatic way in which Cowherd expressed his eureka moment, you’d think he just discovered plutonium.
Of all the Hall of Famers in NBA history to win 30 playoff series or more, Michael Jordan has the highest winning percentage ever.
30 out of 37 playoff series – 81.1%
24-0 with homecourt advantage.
16-0 as a defending champion.
11-5 without a concurrent All-Star teammate. pic.twitter.com/mA7zWXGoTq
— AirJordans23 (@AirJordans2323) March 18, 2023
Plus, the analogy has to work the other way, so you could easily say that Pippen and Jackson couldn’t win without Jordan. They tried, but were eliminated by the New York Knicks when Jordan was totally failing at baseball.
And that concludes the worst argument ever made against Michael Jordan’s greatness. Take a bow, Cowherd, you’ve earned it.
James Di Fiore
Meet veteran freelance journalist, James Di Fiore. Founder of Blackball Media. A while back, James was blacklisted after spotlighting controversial stories involving some of Canada’s most prolific media personalities, editors and journalists. He started Blackball Media so that editors could no longer treat freelancers like sources. Legacy media is broken, and he's here to pick up the pieces. James is a Montreal native living in Toronto, a published children's author, political pundit (those are often interchangeable), and freelance scribe. He is also an award winning documentary film producer and a happy stay-at-home daddy. We're proud to have him, James will fit in well around here.
