A Small Question To Those Who Say LeBron James Will Never Be Michael Jordan

Um, why should he?

Let's imagine a world in which the Miami Heat become the next great NBA team. They win something like four out of the next five NBA championships. James averages a triple-double. He overcomes an injury, either to himself or to one of his superstar teammates (and, well, that would be Dwayne Wade). He throws down a dominant playoff performance or six, and maybe chips in a 70-point game, or a 40-point per game playoff run, with sweeps of teams that other people think are good. He's an All-Star Game MVP, an Olympic gold medalist, yada yada yada. He's the best player of his generation, and it's not even close.

Will we still be killing him over the PR debacle of leaving Cleveland, or the "cowardice" of needing to play with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh?

No, of course not. We'll go back to fellating him for his canny choice, delighting in the way that the Heat play ball, talking about how they revolutionized the game away from Celtic/Laker inside game thuggery, or how, for the first time in the history of the game, a smallball-style approach really worked. We'll be talking about how the Thunder and Bulls and Team TBD might be the ones to dethrone them, and whether James has logged too many minutes or how Role Player X deserves more credit for hitting the wide-open three pointers that came his way in the Heat's latest win.

Because what seems to be dawning on everyone, as the dust starts to settle and the Heat fill out the roster with useful pieces like Mike Miller, is that he's put himself in a very good position. And that no team's fans in the Eastern Conference seem to be real thrilled about it. Celtics Fan, Bulls Fan, Magic Fan... none of them are thinking, "Wow, I'm sure a lot more comfortable about my team's chances to make the Finals now that LeBron is out of Cleveland."

And oh, by the way, when Jordan talks about how he would have never called up Larry Bird or Magic Johnson to collude to be on the same team?

Jordan, Bird and Magic didn't enter the league at the same time. They never had the opportunity to play together until 1992, eight years into Jordan's NBA life, when both Bird and Magic were well past their peak, and Jordan was still on the ascent, and a multiple NBA champion. (That time to play together being the Barcelona Dream Team. Note that LeBron plays with Wade and Bosh in 2008 in Beijing; if Cavs Fan really wants to find a villain for this thing beyond the usual suspects, blame John Thompson for picking a boneheaded team in 1988, leading to NBA players in the game in the first place.)

If Michael really wanted to make the corollary correct, he'd have mentioned others from his draft class, including Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley. But he didn't want to do that, because then he'd be degrading his legacy by talking about the Chuckster, or the Dream that never won when he was in Chicago. Jordan also, of course, had the best second banana in the history of the league in Scottie Pippen, the best coach in the history of the league in Phil Jackson, and a roster filled with people who knew their roles and lived with Jordan's obsessive nature.

Now, would Jordan have left Chicago at age 25? Of course not. Unlike James, he had a taskmaster and present father to push him in different directions, a college experience where Dean Smith kept him under 20 points a game (the only person ever to do that, really), and, well, just different wiring from anyone to ever play the game, with the possible exception of Kobe Bryant.

But, and this is the far more important point... did James actually make the wrong decision? The relentless fluffing of the Noah-Rose Bulls seems be dying down. (And one has to wonder just how much Jordan's scorn has to do with the fact that James didn't go to his old stomping grounds.) The growing realization that the Heat might be the best team in the East, especially now that the roster is filling out despite undue cap concerns, is starting to take some of the sting of the ESPN wankathon away. James just might be, and this is the really terrible thought.... really, freaking smart. Tone-deaf on the PR, sure. But correct on the court. And that's beyond the Delonte West rumors.

Will that make him the best to every play the game? Well, probably not. But he wasn't ever going to be that guy, because that player hasn't been born yet. The best player in the history of the game will win without any teammates at all, perhaps by his use of telekinesis, or telescoping 40 foot arms, or by being a perfect stealth cyborg. There will always be a best player ever, and he will always be on the horizon. It's the nature of the beast.

But until that player enters the league, we'll live with what we've got. Which is the most intriguing team in years, and an organization that we're supposed to hate.

Until, of course, they win.

And win, and win, and win... and change the dominant NBA narrative that there has to be a Clear Alpha Dog to win (oh, like the 2008 Celtics, who won on defense, and would give the last shot to whoever was open?), or that you have to win with defense (like the Showtime Lakers, with lockdown defense from... well, guys who didn't start), or that teams can only win with continuity and cohesion (like, again, the 2008 Celtics, who threw their Big 3 together in training camp. or the 2009-10 Lakers, who changed from Trevor Ariza to Ron Artest), or that only teams with good karma win (like, oh... I give up, every NBA championship team is composed of players filled with sweetness and light, and Kobe Bryant is not an *alleged* rich anal rapist).

But until they actually play some game (in approximately 3.5 more months), we'll get to hear more from the Curmudgeon Brigade over how James Es No Macho. Whatever.