Even with all his on-the-court success as a Buck, Abdul-Jabbar struggled to find happiness off the court in his life in Milwaukee. I am a soldier hired for service and I will perform that service well. Basketball has given me a good life, but this town has nothing to do with my roots. There's no common ground. Following the end of the season, Abdul-Jabbar demanded a trade, requesting Bucks management send him to either New York or Los Angeles.
He was eventually shipped west for a package of players, none of whom came close to delivering for Milwaukee what Abdul-Jabbar would give the Lakers. Over the next 15 seasons Abdul-Jabbar turned Los Angeles into a perennial winner.
Beginning with the season, when he was paired with rookie point guard Magic Johnson , the dominant center propelled the Lakers to five league titles. His signature jump shot, the skyhook, came to be an unstoppable offensive weapon for Abdul-Jabbar, and the Lakers enjoyed championship dominance over Julius "Dr.
His success on the court led to some acting opportunities. Abdul-Jabbar appeared in several films, including the martial-arts film Game of Death and the comedy Airplane! Well into his 30s, he still managed to average more than 20 points a game. By his late 30s, he was still playing around 35 minutes a game. When Abdul-Jabbar retired in , he was the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38, points, and became the first NBA player to play for 20 seasons.
His career totals included 17, rebounds, 3, blocks and 1, games. He also broke records for having scored the most points, blocked the most shots and won the most MVP titles in Years after his retirement, Abdul-Jabbar seemed especially proud about his longevity. By the time I retired, everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change. I went through and took the PER and WS of all four players through each postseason where they won a title, as well as the best scores that didn't belong to them.
I then found the difference in each case and added the scores together to come up with a "Robin Factor" to give an estimate of how much help each player received from their superstar teammates. First, here are the average "Robin Factor" scores for each player and their teammates:. It's pretty evident by looking at the year-by-year Robin Factors that Jordan isn't benefiting from a skewed season by anyone in any way, shape or form.
His six rings account for six of the highest seven scores. Furthermore, he's the only player who you can't argue was ever the "Robin" on a championship team.
Clearly, in through , Shaquille O'Neal was the driving force. For Kareem, it was because Magic Johnson was in charge. In fact, while Jordan has six finals MVPs, the other two have only two a piece. For Russell, on his first two championship teams and his last one, it is evident that he wasn't even the second best player on the team. That's not a swipe though. He was first a very young player on a team loaded with Hall of Famers and a veteran past his prime. There were no Finals MVPs awarded then, but it's likely he could have won six.
However, there remains the earlier fact that he had by far the most Hall-of-Fame help of any of the players. In terms of help, Jordan received significantly less than any of the other three.
Statistically speaking, there can be no argument. Jordan is not only clearly ahead in terms of absolute value. He is also clearly ahead in relative value. However, there will be those who argue that numbers don't tell the whole story. Now, first, I will say that I agree with that. It has been my observation though that generally when people make that argument, they deny the part of the story that the numbers do tell.
Numbers don't tell the whole story, but they do tell a pretty good chunk of it. As to the part that the numbers don't tell, Jordan wins there as well. He's the only one of them who never lost in a finals. He is the only one who won the finals MVP every time. He's the only one who never played a game seven.
He has won two series on a game-winning assist and he's won one series with a game-winning shot. He had the flu game. He had the shrug. He had the cry. He had not one, but two point finals games. He had eight point games. His "worst" game in the finals was "only" 22 points with four boards and four assists.
When John Hollinger did his best finals performances, Jordan had four of the top 10 slots and five of the top The narrative part of the story is not lost on Michael Jordan.
No, the story is not lost there. Nor is it stuck in only the finals. His game itself is what separates him from mere mortals, or even the "demigods," such as Kobe Bryant and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The most amazing thing about Jordan is that his best help was not Scottie Pippen. It's not to take anything away from Pippen, but it's what Pippen wasn't that makes Jordan extraordinary, and that's a big man.
When you look at every other great team, there's always been a ball handler and distributor on the outside, and a scorer, a big man, on the inside. Jordan was unique in that he served as both. He was the primary ball handler and passer on the team, and he was the primary scorer in the paint. Former Pistons guard Joe Dumars once said that 95 percent of the Bulls' plays are intended for Michael Jordan, and the other five percent end up in his hands anyway.
No other player in NBA history has won multiple championships the way that Jordan did. One could argue that LeBron James has been the same kind of player, but he hasn't won championships. Kobe could score in the paint, but he never won without a great scoring big man.
Kareem had Oscar Robertson, and then Magic Johnson. Michael Jordan had Horace Grant, who had one season where he scored That's the only time in his career where he had a big man score more than 15 points in the playoffs. We also have to take into account his entire basketball resume, including college and high school.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar has the highest college career scoring average at What is most amazing about Kareem's Ncaa career is the rule changes he influenced. Just look up the "Alcindor rules". Also, there is the legendary story of Kareem's Ucla Bruins freshmen team completely dominating the varsity team. And this was when freshmens weren't eligible to play. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the greatest high school basketball player as well.
Kareem led his high school team to three straight championships, an astonishing 71 game winning streak with a overall record and finished points for his high school career. So who's the greatest player in Nba history?
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