The next two effects work together. The Long Term Memory Loss Effect takes care of players before and contemporary with Jordan, while the Jim Brown Effect deals with players after Jordan.
The Long Term Memory Loss Effect is the effect where Jordan’s worshipers conveniently forget the great players who came before him. The two most notable players affected by this in this effect are Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. When those two were still in the league, there were very few people who came forward to say Jordan was the best ever. In fact, most experts didn’t even apply the label of best current player to Jordan until Bird and Magic were gone. Why is that? Did Jordan get better? No, and that stats support that. OK, he won some more championships (see the Bill Russell Effect), but that correlates with the decline of the other great teams (Lakers, Celtics, Pistons).
I grew up in the 1980’s, so I’ve seen Jordan’s entire career. I also remember the revival of the NBA and how the experts viewed Bird and Magic. You know, in 1981 there was an article in Sports Illustrated (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bas…1981flash.html) that described Bird as the most complete player since Oscar Robertson and made the case that he may be the most complete (not necessarily the best) player ever. That was only after two seasons for Bird! In his seventh season, Bird was touted as the best player EVER (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bas…1986flash.htm). Yes, in only his seventh year he was being hailed as the best player ever. What is perhaps most amazing is that his next two seasons were even better than ever. How did Larry Bird’s greatness get lost in the mix?
Toward the end of the 1980’s and then into the 1990’s, Magic Johnson began showing his all-around game. He won three MVPs in his last five seasons in LA (not including his short comeback in 1995-96), and the experts were starting to label him as the best player of his generations – some were even calling him the best ever. He and Jordan would meet in the 1991 finals, but at that time the two were viewed as equals: if anything, Magic was looked at as being the better player. (Interesting note: most experts now view Magic as being better than Bird, whereas when both were in their primes, the predominant opinion was that Bird was better – more on that at another time.)
What happened? What caused the view of Jordan to skyrocket past Bird and Magic? His stats were not dominant in that comparison. How about accomplishments? Jordan had five MVPs to Bird’s and Magic’s three apiece, but a closer analysis sheds some light on that. Bird had his three by his seventh seasons (Jordan had two after seven seasons), while in Magic’s early years he had to share the spotlight with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In 1986-87 and 1987-88 Bird, Jordan and Magic were playing at their peaks: the 1987 MVP voting was Magic-Jordan-Bird (Bird’s teammate Kevin McHale was also in the top five that year, meaning that Bird’s scoring and rebounding totals were not as high as they could have been) and the 1988 voting was Jordan-Bird-Magic. They were viewed as equals – actually, Bird and Magic were viewed as being on a higher plane at that time.
Since Jordan’s second retirement in 1998, the fans and many of the experts have turned their backs on the two men who revived the NBA and set the stage for Jordan to become what he was. Were Jordan’s accomplishments or stats significantly better than Magic or Bird? No, of course not. In reality, the metamorphosis began with the first threepeat and really escalated during his hiatus from the NBA. When he returned – especially after the Bulls went 72-10 in 1995-96 – the media just hailed him as the greatest ever and began stating that as if it were just as much as fact as his being 6′6″. How come? Well, for one thing he was undeniably the NBA’s biggest star; no longer did he have to share the stage with Bird and Magic. He also benefited from the dilution of talent in the NBA, enabling the Bulls to face Seattle and Utah in the second threepeat – second tier teams in the whole scheme of NBA history.
Of course, the Long Term Memory Loss Effect applies to those before Magic and Bird. How about Wilt Chamberlain? His statistical accomplishments dwarf Jordan’s. How did Wilt get forgotten? What about Kareem? I saw that one poster mentioned Kareem as the best ever earlier on this thread. He had six MVPs in the first 11 seasons of his career: 6 MVP/6 championship rings. Their greatness is lost in the wash of Jordan worship: people are choosing to forget past greats.
