I can look back with painful memories when Michael Jordan hit a last second jumper over Byron Russell of my beloved Utah Jazz. My junior year of high school, 1998, I was working the late shift at Hannaford supermarket. I left my register every chance I got to try and get a peak at the score. The deli department had a small TV in the back and it was just me and the front end manager. Towards the end of the game I completely forgot I was at work, it was just two guy cheering on the greatest point guard and power forward duo to every play the game. Well we all know what happened next in that game 6 at the Delta Center. Jordan and the Bulls won their 6 world championships and the Jazz were due for a makeover.
Now it’s 2008 and most the people I talk to say the NBA has not been the same since Michael Jordan retired for the 2nd time. Well to those people I say wake up. There has been no lack of star power since the greatest player of all time called quits for what should have been his last time, but we all know it wasn’t. He came back and tarnished his legacy just a bit. My point is since he retired we have had some really, really good basketball action. What more can basketball fans ask for? We had 2 dynasties in a span of a decade though I can’t stomach either team. I feel the Spurs are too boring to watch and the Lakers just seem too cocky, but they had every right to be. We had the underdog champions, when the Pistons upset the Lakers and the Heats upset the Mavericks. We’ve seen teams like the Kings, the Mavericks, the Suns, and the Nets build itself to become championship contender to only fall short. There has been no lack of drama since number 23 left the game.
Let’s face it Michael Jordan as good as he was, he was not the only reason the NBA was so exciting back in the late 80s into the late 90s. There were other stars, like his trusted sidekick and all around player Scottie Pippen. We had dominating centers with David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, and Hakeem Olajuwon. There were point guards like John Stockton, Magic Johnson, and Isiah Thomas. There were great players in every position, but the players we have in this era are just as good as or even better than those back then. We got Shaquille O’Neal and Yao Ming and they can give the centers of Jordan ear a run for their money. We saw the rise of floors generals like Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, and Chauncey Billups and that’s not even counting the young guns like Deron Williams and Chris Paul. There will never be another player like Jordan, but there are plenty of two guards that comes extremely close, heck Kobe Bryant will probably go down as the best shooting guard not named MJ.
Come on people; turn the TV on its playoff time. Enjoy some great B-Ball action; we might just see the beginning of a new dynasty or the continuation of one of the 2 Western powerhouses from the last decade. Heck even my Utah Jazz is getting back to respectability and who knows maybe we are just 2 or 3 season away from a championship that was denied us by Air Jordan.
