POLL: Russell/Jordan better and age correlation to opinion???

[csfansince60s]

I am very curious as to whether the oldster people (like me) who actually saw Russell play favor Russell and the youngsters, who never saw him play favor Jordan.

This has little (although, I do feel it does to a small degree) to do with one's competence to make a valid judgment here.
e.g, I did not see The Babe play, but given his hitting AND pitching accomplishments and talent in a pre-steroid, pre-liveball era and his championships, to me he is clearly the best baseball player ever.

It has more to do with whether 1.actually seeing Russell biased you towards him rather than Jordan and 2. if you never saw Russell, if that biased you towards Jordan.

My earlier post puts me in the saw Russell/Russell best camp.

[Celtics17]

Really it's very hard to determine who is a better player if you didnt actually see all of the choices. I do find it incredirbly irritating that so often people discount past players as if they were less of an athlete. I am only 45 so I never saw Russ play. I did see Larry though and it was 25 years ago he was the best player in the game. Why is it possible that Larry was so good 25 years ago in so many younger people's eyes but Russ, Chamberlain, Big O and many others of just 45 years ago are considered inferior players to so many today?

Dominique Wilkens played 25 years ago as well and there are very few athletes of his caliber in todays game. He also played against much better competition too yet few fans of todays game would say he could possible be better then Dewayne Wade or Lebron or Kobe. Maybe he isn't but he is certainly every bit as athletic as any of those guys.

[indeedproceed]

This poll looked really urgent with all those question marks, and so I answered it immediately. Hopefully that helps.

[csfansince60s]

This poll looked really urgent with all those question marks, and so I answered it immediately. Hopefully that helps.

Thank you for helping to satisfy my curiosity, and I'm sure that you weren't being patronizing and sarcastic and really meant what you said. So again, thank you.

The 3 question marks were more to express my consternation and inadequacies in regards to gauging people's opinions and some of the factors involved in making those decisions.

Jordan was a media construct who benefited in so many ways from being in the right place at the right time.

He stood on the shoulders of giants (Russ, Wilt, Bird, Magic specifically and especially) to get where he was. And where he was was in a vacuum of true superstardom where someone (like a Lenny Bias would have) could challenge him.

Russ had Wilt, Legend had Magic.

Jordan had the media and an NBA that exploded because of the giants immediately before him and contemporaneously with him early in his career . There were no Lakers, Celtics, '6ers or Bad boy Pistons in their prime. He had NO competition like those teams to go through to win his championships.

Right place, right time alone does not a legend make.

[CelticsFanNC]

   I don't blame younger fans for gushing over Jordan or Kobe or LeBron while completely dismissing anyone they didn't witness.

  I blame the NBA and ESPN for working so hard to sell what we see in front of us or in the recent past and in effect dismissing everything that happened in the more distant past.  There is an entire generation of younger fans that have been brainwashed by ESPN and the NBA marketing machine.

[dtrader]

This poll looked really urgent with all those question marks, and so I answered it immediately. Hopefully that helps.

Thank you for helping to satisfy my curiosity, and I'm sure that you weren't being patronizing and sarcastic and really meant what you said. So again, thank you.

The 3 question marks were more to express my consternation and inadequacies in regards to gauging people's opinions and some of the factors involved in making those decisions.

Jordan was a media construct who benefited in so many ways from being in the right place at the right time.

He stood on the shoulders of giants (Russ, Wilt, Bird, Magic specifically and especially) to get where he was. And where he was was in a vacuum of true superstardom where someone (like a Lenny Bias would have) could challenge him.

Russ had Wilt, Legend had Magic.

Jordan had the media and an NBA that exploded because of the giants immediately before him and contemporaneously with him early in his career . There were no Lakers, Celtics, '6ers or Bad boy Pistons in their prime. He had NO competition like those teams to go through to win his championships.

Right place, right time alone does not a legend make.

I think it's just as easy, to argue that Jordan made players who would have been legends look like lesser players, as it is to say that he played in an era that was watered down. Look at the all time scoring list of the league. Jordan played in an era that saw 7-12 of them in or near their prime, and he dismantled them all.  Karl Malone is second only to wilt in scoring, but his name never enters the discussions of the greats, because his teams were routinely dismantled by Jordan.  The same could be said for Barkley, Ewing, and to a lesser extent Reggie miller as well.  Hakeems career was basically defined by Jordans absence. 

You could Add Rick Adelman to this list as well.  Phil Jackson, Riley, and Red are glorified almost as much as their players due to the banners they had a hand in raising.  Imagine the status that Rick would have had, if his teams didn't keep falling to Jordan.  It wasn't that the league didn't have legends playing at the same time as Jordan...It's that his legend robbed them of theirs.

It's the same way with the teams he played.  The Celts, Lakers, 6'ers, etc you mention are all legendary teams, because of the banners they raised.  Jordan didn't play them, but he played some stacked Utah, Phoenix, Blazers, etc teams.  Those teams could have gone on to become legendary if their time wasn't cut short by Jordan.

As much as you can say that Jordan had it easy, because he didnt have to play against legends like Russell or Wilt, you can say those players are lucky they never had to play against Jordan, because they may never have won, and subsequently never become legends in the first place.


I saw Jordan play in person, and watch as much film as I can of Russell, because he a legend, and part of the history of my favorite team.  As much as I would like to say that the greatest ever was one of my home teams own...I just can't having seen all that I've seen.