Sports talk show hosts have a very fine line to balance. They have to be edgy enough that people make watching their show a regular ritual but not too provocative as to carry no credibility whatsoever. Ever the trapeze artist, Colin Cowherd was determined to walk that edge when it came to his latest take on basketball and cultural icon Michael Jordan.
“Take out Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson, this whole Michael Jordan mythology is sort of just that,” he said on the Colin Cowherd Podcast, per Ballslife.com.
Colin Cowherd on MJ: "He tried baseball. He failed. He tried ownership. He was awful. He tried the Wizards. It bombed. Everybody understand, take out Scottie Pippen & Phil Jackson, this whole Michael Jordan mythology is sort of just that." pic.twitter.com/0r7E02uyNs…
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) March 18, 2023
On the surface, the point is completely accurate and an argument many fans make in debates about the greatest basketball player of all time. The problem is the subtext and implied point that egocentric Jordan needed other great players and minds around him, otherwise the Chicago Bulls would have never evolved into the universal rock stars they became during the 1990s.
MJ was certainly not Mr. rah-rah, best teammate ever kind of guy as has been reiterated a number of times, but he unequivocally made the guys around him better on the court. There were growing pains to be had in the 80s for sure, but no superstar does it on his own.
LeBron James did not win his first NBA Championship until he linked up with future Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade and multiple time All-Star Chris Bosh and a slew of solid role players. Bill Russell was part of the most dominant dynasty in NBA history.
Kobe Bryant is the only megastar in recent history to win a ring without a bonafide top 50 player of all time. Neither Cowherd nor most people have proclaimed the Mamba as the GOAT, so his Michael Jordan argument is quite leaky.
Now, the thing that brought on this soliloquy in the first place- reports that Jordan is in talks to sell his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets- is definitely a valid critique against the Bulls legend. Despite being led by Kemba Walker for years, and now the promise of LaMelo Ball, the franchise remained largely irrelevant under Jordan. His cachet has done nothing to change the tides.
He is an easy target as an owner, but as a basketball player Cowherd and other pundits will be hard pressed to land a worthwhile blow on the merit of his endless accomplishments.
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