Spring Loaded

Let’s start with a basic fact.

Michael Jordan is not the greatest basketball player of all time. Never was. Never will be.

ESPN’s choice of him for Athlete of the Century back in 2000 was a joke. There were only three possibilities for that designation: Babe Ruth, who opened the door to sports for the general public like nobody else in the first half of the 20th century, Jackie Robinson, who opened the floodgates for African-Americans and, indeed, all minorities in the middle of the century, and Muhammad Ali, who put sports on the world stage like nobody else in the latter half of the century.

Michael Jordan? He didn’t win his first NBA title until 1991. And he ruled all ten decades? I don’t think so.

Which brings us to Kobe Bryant, who will soon be fitted for his fourth championship ring, an accomplishment being touted as another rung on his climb to catch or surpass Jordan.

After all, say those making the comparison, Jordan had six NBA titles, Bryant four, as if they alone exist in the basketball pantheon.

At age 30, with the best supporting cast in the game, Bryant certainly figures to move further up the ladder of greatness, but Jordan is hardly the only rung above him.

For starters, how about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? He also had six NBA titles. But he also won three championships in college at UCLA, while Jordan won only one NCAA title in his three seasons at North Carolina.

Kareem had such a big impact on the college game that the dunk was briefly outlawed during his reign because he was such a dominant force.

I know, I know, we’re supposed to be discussing NBA greats. But we’re also discussing basketball greats and the collegiate years should figure in that equation as well.

And finally, Kareem is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, another distinction that should put him higher on the ladder than Jordan.

But ultimately, there are two other giants who will settle this argument, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.

If it’s statistics you want, the argument ends with Chamberlain.

There has never been a force in the game like the 7-1, 275-pounder. He had 100 points in a single game, 55 rebounds in one game and a single-season scoring average of 50.4 points, records that will be probably never be broken.

But the standard for greatness in sports usually comes down to championships. And in that department, Russell dwarfs Chamberlain and everyone else who ever dribbled a ball.

Russell won 11 titles in 13 seasons, including eight in a row.

An eight-peat.

End of discussion.

While the roster of the Boston Celtics changed over that period, Russell was the constant. He changed the game by elevating defense to the same level of excellence as the offenses of his day.

And, he won his last two championships as player/coach, a status none of his rivals for greatest player ever attempted.

But, the argument goes, there were only eight teams in the NBA for the early part of Russell’s era.

Exactly. All the more reason to praise him. With the best talent concentrated on only eight teams, that made each of those squads tougher than many of the watered-down teams in existence today.

Fortunately, the NBA has finally recognized Russell’s greatness, 40 years after he left the game, by naming it’s NBA Finals MVP trophy after him.

Jordan may have been the greatest shoe salesman the game has ever known, but greatest player? I don’t think so.

For Bryant, the target is much higher.

Bill Russell was the greatest of all time.

Case closed.