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Topics: Basketball, Chicago Bulls, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, NBA
Chris Byfield
Topics: Basketball, Chicago Bulls, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, NBA
An NBA fan has proposed a new reason as to why Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player in history.
Jordan is widely regarded as the greatest player in basketball history, after a storied career that saw him claim a 6-0 record with the Chicago Bulls in NBA Finals and win five Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards.
Only four-time MVP Lebron James rivals Jordan’s claim as the greatest, with the 39-year-old still among the games best players after over two decades of dominance.
However, one fan on Reddit has labelled Jordan as the best for his outstanding playoff record.
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As noted by GoatmontWaters, Jordan wracked up a record eight 50 point playoff games. No active player has notched even half that amount.
The Reddit used added: “A big argument for Jordan being [the] Goat is his unmatched ability to score in the playoffs.
“He had only six playoff games his entire career under 20 points.
“So in the playoffs he was statistically more likely to score 50 than [he was to score fewer than] 20.”
Earlier this year the Athletic anonymously polled current NBA stars to determine the greatest NBA player in history.
According to a poll of 133 players, Jordan received 45.9 per cent of the vote, while James came in at 42.1 per cent.
Kobe Bryant was a distant third place at 9.8 per cent, while Stephen Curry, Magic Johnson and Paul Pierce each received 0.8 per cent.
However, Jordan has insisted he would not consider himself the greatest basketball player of all time.
Speaking to ESPN in 2019 he said: “I don’t want it, in a sense, because I think it disrespects Wild Chamberlain, Jerry West, all the guys prior to me that I never had the chance to play against.
“What everyone’s saying I am - I never had the chance to compete against other legends that came before me.
“When I hear it I cringe a little bit. It’s a little bit embarrassing because no one knows. I never had the chance to play against those guys. I would have loved to have played against them but I never did.
“For you to say that I’m better than him - that’s your opinion, it’s their opinion, I accept that as an opinion, but if you ask me I would never say I’m the greatest player.
“And that’s because I never played against all the people that represented the league prior to Michael Jordan.”