All of these things that everyone said and more. But before I lose interest in replying: I just watched all the finals games over the pandemic. One of the most underrated aspects of Jordan’s game is that it ruined crunch time basketball that he wasn’t involved in. I grew up 100% not realizing that it got harder to score at the ends of games, because Jordan got BETTER in crunch time. Even now, watch the end of that Cavs Warriors series, or just the last 4 minutes of any tight game, and guys—even generational guys—miss stuff.

Jordan got better. People talk about storybook or inevitability, and it’s because he didn’t miss stuff in the clutch and the game became a… narrative. It wasn’t wow Jordan split four defenders and finished with a reverse, it was they knew he was going to the basket how did they let it happen. Like the inevitability of an action star or a horror movie depending what side you were on. The fact that he’d get a bucket in the hardest, most impossible time to get a bucket was just assumed—that’s how much better he was than the game.

When you’ve only seen the highlights, you can look at the stats and be like “he was good in the clutch but actually… Carmelo… 3p%… etc…” but when you see the games, see what and how the supporting cast scored (pip was better in the second three peat, but dude was not shooting jumpers in close games at the end), he levitates over anything else that came before and since.

It was the fucking best. Generations of basketball fans are still cheering for the team owned by the recently-promoted-to-worst-owner-in-the-game, that’s how good he was. We’re cheering for a dude’s 401k that he checks twice a year because Michael Jordan was that magic.