Maybe it was the much-anticipated Apocalypse that came and went, or getting closer to the 2012 Mayan calendar end of the world, but legacies are a hot topic right now.
Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan’s Robin during their playing days as a dynamic duo with the Chicago Bulls, said LeBron James has a chance to be the greatest player in NBA history, surpassing Jordan.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar wrote an open letter to Pippen explaining that basketball didn’t begin with Jordan and Pippen.
“You obviously never saw Wilt Chamberlain play, who undoubtedly was the greatest scorer this game has ever known,” Jabbar wrote. “When did MJ ever average 50.4 points per game plus 25.7 rebounds?”
Then came the retirement announcement by Shaquille O’Neal and his place among the greatest big men in the history of the game.
Amidst all this argument about legacies, ESPN rebroadcasted the “30 for 30” documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Ron Shelton about Michael Jordan’s time off from basketball (1993-1995) to try to play professional baseball.
He played one season with the Chicago White Sox Double-A minor league Birmingham Barons, batting .202 with 51 RBI and 30 stolen bases. What people forget is Jordan also played in the Arizona Fall League — against baseball’s top prospects — and batted .255.
Jordan’s experiment with baseball ended when he was confronted with the notion of being a replacement player during the ongoing strike in spring training of 1995. Jordan returned to the NBA near the end of the 1995 season, and would go on to win three more NBA championships with the Bulls.
But what if Jordan had continued to play baseball? What if he continued to improve just enough to stay with the game? How would that have changed history? What kind of legacies would we be arguing about now?
There certainly would not be a definitive argument for Jordan as the greatest player in NBA history, with only half of his championship legacy. Magic Johnson, with five, would have more rings. So would Kobe Bryant.
Karl Malone may have wound up with one or two NBA titles, or maybe Patrick Ewing.
The entire history of the NBA might have changed with just half of the Jordan wave to ride on. It is safe to say that Jordan probably never would have wound up as the president of the Washington Wizards, or in uniform for two seasons as well — of which neither development would have had any impact on the cursed fortunes of this franchise.
Guess who else would have a different legacy? Scottie Pippen. His championship run would have likely ended when Jordan retired. He might want to consider that the next time he measures greatness.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
