Yes

moved to sports

no, that's retarded.

Why is it retarded? Jordan is probably the greatest great when it comes to basketball.

cause hes black, thomas doesn't like black people

nah he likes alvin

lol, I agree with retiring it for the bulls, but all teams? gtfo

they did it with wayne gretzky, so stop hating on the blacks thomas

f*ck yeah they should retire it

I don't follow the NBA, what's so special about #23?

Michael Jordan

MJ isn't that special. Maybe retire the number for his team, but no way for all teams.

he IS that special though

obviously he isn't to you

Bugs Bunny would strongly disagree

if you don't follow the nba then why the f*ck are you making claims about how special a player is to the leagues history

follow the league =/= watch the games
You guys are talking like I haven't watched him play

no, you're talking like you haven't watched him play since you've said he "isn't that special".

He really isn't though. He's above average, but it's not like he's the greatest player ever or anything.

above average?

As a Knicks fan who watched his team fall to Jordan year after year, there is no f*cking way I want that number raised to the rafters of the Garden, no matter how much I respect him.

Also, f*ck the '94 Rockets.

actually he is, now take your head outta your ass

Actually opinions, now take your head out of everyone else's asses.

name 1 player thats better

magic, bird, wilt, kareem, bill russell, dr. j, kobe, lebron, isiah, guaranteed they all think MJ is the best

are you gonna give real reasons he's not the most accomplished and best player. i think we all wanna know your logic or how you were able to come to this conclusion and put him in any kind of context when you don't follow the nba and didn't even know the most iconic jersey number in the whole sport

I'll give reasons after you guys give reasons.

None of us have proven our opinion. None of us can.

there is no argument here, your leverage on opinions can't be proven doesn't work here, there is simply no player in the history that is on par with MJ. this is the guy who won a 3-peat, retired, had a comeback warmup year, then won another 3-peat

he's got the stats to stunt

I agree, but they should retire Number 24 first.

Who is? Who's more special than MJ?

Uhm no they shouldn't Jordan didn't do anything groundbreaking.

I secretly love Space Jam.

(thought not so secretly now :x)

hahaha i loved space jam. i wish i got a magical basketball so i can take its power too.

1x agree. No denying that he was a good at what he did, but he didn't turn the basketball into wine or anything.

it makes me sad that you out of all the people here said this.

okay, let me name one player that i think could match up to jordan, but i still think jordan is the best. wilt chamberlain was ridiculously good, but mj was better all around. even though he wasn't an excellent 3-point shooter, he made up for it through his other shots and free throws. oh and let's not even discuss his ball handling skills.

plus wilt was over 7 feet and played in a completely different time. do i think wilt would have been the same wilt in the era jordan played? no. jordan also has 3 times as many rings and as kevin mentioned before, he's done the 3-peat TWICE. there is a billion more ways we can name that jordan outdoes wilt.


but i still wanna know who cj and javonn say is more accomplished than jordan

lyke barry bonds iz wae b3ttar than mikey.

Also as good as Jordan was, he still placed trust in his team and promoted team work. He was a selfish ballhog player at first, and he was freaking good thing, but it wasn't until he started to become an amazing team player that he became the greatest.

It has nothing to do with accolades or anything. To Teesa and JC: when I think groundbreaking I think Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens and yes Bill Russell. People who gave blacks the opportunity to be recognized in that particular sport. Jackie Robinson had his number retired for what he did. Arthur Ashe has a stadium named after him because of what he did. Bill Russell and Jesse Owens had it probably the toughest because they did it under extreme racist situations. Without these people, we probably wouldn't be talking about Jordan or Kobe or Tiger or the Williams sisters.

what does giving blacks the opportunity have anything to do with pure basketball skill?

That's the perspective that I am basing my opinion on. I mean when I think of retiring a number the first thing that comes into my head is Jackie Robinson and then I just ran with it from there.

so that means no athlete from now on can have his jersey retired because they were born too late to be racially "groundbreaking"? have you ever seen Do the Right Thing lol? mj was more than black. if you wanted that racial element could be thrown in. white, black, doesn't matter, everyone loved michael. he made basketball global.

anyway, i disagree. michael jordan was groundbreaking becasue he was an amazing player, not just becuase he was black. i don't agree with retiring jersey numbers based on race. i agree with retiring them based on skill and their contribution to the sport. i think it's weird that when you hear that a jersey is being retired then you think of race, because that's not why jerseys are retired 95% of the time in any sport for any team.

they retired wayne gretzky's

p.s. if you wanna retire numbers based on breaking color barriers, then why do you wanna retire bill russell's number instead of the first african american's in the league? their the ones who "broke the barrier" for bill russell, ect. i duno i just feel like it's unfair that someone should be out of the running based on when they were born/entered the league. that's my two cents though

jackie = great player, right place right time
jordan = great player, wrong place wrong time

Can you really say Kobe and Lebron are better, though? Lebron's still a rookie, comparatively speaking, and neither of them have gotten to the peak of their careers.

MJ is one of the greatest, don't get me wrong, but I don't think his number should be retired for the entire league. If he had stayed retired the second time instead of messing up his legacy by being a douche during his time with the Wizards, maybe I'd feel differently.