Nearly 30 years ago, my late grandmother solidified the belief that no one could dethrone Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player of all time. She was admitted to a nursing home around the time of Jordan’s 1995 NBA comeback, following his two-year stint in minor league baseball with the Birmingham Barons. Reflecting on it, that was one of the saddest moments of my life. Just three years prior, she had proudly attended my graduation from Stillman College.
Whenever I visited her at the nursing home in Northport, the TV was almost always tuned to NBC, airing its popular soap opera *Days of Our Lives.* During the commercial breaks, NBC regularly promoted the NBA Finals, which featured Jordan’s Chicago Bulls facing the Seattle SuperSonics and the Utah Jazz across three consecutive seasons. The elderly women and nurses would scream with excitement whenever Jordan and the Bulls’ highlights came on. Although my grandmother could barely speak or move, her face would light up with a smile. The Bulls clinched all three championships during that stretch, and my grandmother passed away shortly after Jordan’s sixth and final title.
Fast forward 20 years, two of my cousins were placed in nursing homes. When I visited them, I noticed that the TVs were on different channels, and nobody seemed to talk about LeBron James or Stephen Curry—the NBA’s biggest stars. The barbershop debates about whether Jordan or LeBron is the greatest remain a hot topic, from Selma to Dallas County. But instead of endlessly comparing current players to legends, commentators and so-called basketball experts should focus on celebrating today’s stars and teams.
This fixation on dethroning Jordan is one reason I’ve lost interest in watching the NBA. Apparently, many others feel the same way—recently, the Boston Celtics’ championship win over the Dallas Mavericks garnered low TV ratings. For me, the debate is over: Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time, period.
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