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"Kobe Bryant would be as good as MJ if he had supporting cast. "

"Lebron James just needs a Scottie Pippen and than he will be as good as MJ"

And of course "Lebron James and/or Dwyane Wade have a great chance at being the next Jordan."

Let me make this clear. NO ONE IN THE NBA RIGHT NOW WILL BE AS GOOD AS MJ OR HAS THE SAME AMOUNT OF TALENT.

There are two guards that are allowed to be mentioned in the same sentence as Jordan and those are Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson. No one else has earned that right.  MJ dominated the NBA like no other guard, yet I feel that people have largely forgotten how good he actually was. So let me remind you.

There are his 6 rings (Everyone has heard that "big men win championships". Well Jordan won 6 championships without a dominant big man, in an era with 4 of the top 10 centers of all time), 6 Finals MVPs, and 5 MVPs (Other than Magic and Nash no other guard has more than 1). But there's even more to him than just those achievements.

Scoring:  He has 10 scoring titles, the most in NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain is second, with 7. If that doesn't amaze you I don't know what will. He has 3 more scoring titles that the most dominant offensive force in NBA history.  His second full year in the NBA he averaged 37.1 points per game.  I honestly believe that by the early 90s he could have averaged 40+ a game if he had wanted to. Too bad he was also a good team player.

Team Play: This leads me to the next point. He was an amazing passer and team player. One year he averaged 32 ppg, 8 assists and 8 rebounds. Remember how amazed we were at lebron going 27 7 and 7. This is just one-up on that.  He knew exactly when to pass and when to score. example: when he scored 55 points in a game against the Knicks, yet passed it off to Bill Wennington for the game winning lay-up.

Defense: This is honestly what amazes me the most. I mean there have been other great scorers in the past and Robertson and Magic were both great team players but no one has ever been the defensive player of the year while also winning the scoring title in the same year. That year he averaged 3.1 steals, 1.6 blocks and 34.6 ppg. He was named first team all-defense 9 times, a number that has only been bested by Bobby Jones (8 NBA and 2 ABA first teams) I can not think of another person other than Hakeem and Kareem to have that kinda of dominance on both sides of the ball.

In comparison Kobe (who people have said is as good of a scorer as MJ) has 2 scoring titles. MJ did for 10 years what kobe has done the last two.  Sure hes a good defender, but nowhere near the caliber of MJ. And of course I don't think I need to mention the difference in team play.

Wade and Lebron have also been mentioned many times as "the next Jordan". If they were than in their first 4 years why haven't they: won DPOY and an MVP, led the league in scoring 3 times, or averaged 33 ppg, 6.2 rebounds, 6 assists, 2.8 steals, while shooting over 50% from the field. There stats are great, but not as good as MJs. And before you mention getting to the finals, look at MJs team. Other than Oakely who was decent, there was absolutely no one to help him, not to mention he had to go up against the Celtics and Pistons every year.

In Summary, I know most of you know that Michael Jordan is better than Bryant, James, and Wade, but I just wanted to remind everyone of just how amazing he really is. Lets stop the comparisons of all these different players to MJ until someone comes and puts up 37 points a game his 2^nd full year in the nba. When that happens then come back to me.