Monday, March 14th, 2011 at 10:00 am  |  231 responses

Phil Jackson: ‘Stop Comparing Anyone to Michael Jordan’


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

The basketball-watching world will never stop trying to figure out who the next Michael Jordan is. Though most reasonable folks know that person doesn’t exist, it won’t stop them from trying.

Phil Jackson coached MJ, and now coaches the guy who a lot of people have compared to Mike in terms of ability, killer instinct, and above all else, winning.

According to the Zen Master, though, there’s no point trying to measure anyone against Michael Jordan. He’s in a category all to his own.

From the LA Times:

“Kobe has patterned himself after Michael, and there are a lot of identical things there, but it’s one thing to hope to be like him, it’s another thing to be like him.” So when Jackson’s next book comes out, and it will, will Jackson reveal who he thinks was best — Jordan or Bryant?

“We have to take Michael Jordan out of the equation. Stop comparing anyone to Michael Jordan. It’s just not fair. He was remarkable. Kobe’s in his own sphere. He doesn’t shoot the same percentage [.455] as Michael [.497]. He has the same characteristics as Michael, but he’s not the same player. It takes nothing away from him — he’s a great player in his own right.”

Jackson then tells a story about Jordan playing 27 holes of golf before a playoff game against Miami — in which he scored 56 points. “He had this unbelievable amount of energy that I’ve never seen anybody have,” says Jackson, who wasn’t thrilled with Kobe’s late-night extra practice in Miami. “We’d play three games in four nights on the road and he’d be better the third night than the first. Remarkable.”

Of course, the Jordan/Kobe comparisons will continue to rage on until the end of time, despite the futility of such an exercise.

And should Bryant’s Lakers manage to successfully defend their title this summer, giving Kobe and MJ six championships apiece, even fewer people will heed Phil Jackson’s sage advice.

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  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    Tina Turner —- yesteryears players…?? You mean 8 yrs ago…? I don’t know if you get it really. There are about 100 players in the NBA at any given point with 10+ years experience dominating the league. Show me a team made up of rookies and 2nd 3rd year players winning championships…
    _____
    How about you leave the NBA commentary alone for a minute and go work on another Mad Max movie…

  • http://juan.garcia@computershare.com Tina Turner

    Or get me a Craig Ehlo for the Mamba to drill a fadeaway go ahead jumper to pull the win. Would’ve been just as automatic. The fact is yesteryears players don’t play with the overall athletic ability of todays player whom by the way are taught better defensive principles than yesteryears players. Yesterdays players had more offensive basketball fundementals down but defense was a forethaught in MJ’s game till the Pistons came along. Jordan was unable to get by them till He had a mentally tough enough squad to win those chips. That’s what seperates Kobe from today’s athletes. The ability to instill this mental toughness in to his teams players and elevate them to champion status. That’s what your Stackhouses, Hills, AI’s, VC’s, McGrady’s, Wades, LeBrons and Durants never or haven’t yet learned.Some due to injury of coarse. Wade only had the luck of facing the weakest minded team of this past decade in the finals.
    The only plyers since Jordan to have this quality learned are Duncan, Kobe and KG. Shaq never had it. It was always Kobe who instilled this in that first dynasty. Shaq was a lazy ** ** who only got up for the play offs.

  • http://klatschendom.wordpress.com/ speedy

    Cosign Phil.
    Enuf said.

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    How hasn’t Kobe made guys like Lamar Odom (who just wanted to eat sugar), Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol into hungry winning champions…? The only guy he didn’t have to bruise up was Derek who sharpens diamonds with his punches.
    _____
    Tina really is a troll.

  • hoodsnake

    RIP Ike Turner

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    Your mixing your comments up tina – one the one hand your saying that todays players haven’t the toughness of the older guys…but they are taught better defensive principles….?? How are you taught better defensive principles… and what principles are they if the NBA has moved their principles to allowing zone defenses… to OPEN up the game for offense…?? If a team from the previous generation was playing defense on you you knew it… you were bleeding, you were hurt and you were crying…you wanted out of the game…. YOU KNOW WHY CARMELO NEVER WANTS TO COME OUT OF A GAME….????????? Because it’s easy to stay in and score points. NO ONE IS COMING AT YOU WITH A KNEE AND A POINT TO MAKE.

  • http://slamonline.com Bryan Crawford

    Annie Mae needs to stuff her mouth with cake…

  • el_larsen

    well phil,aren’t you comparing kobe to mj just after telling us to stop?
    forever a dickhead

  • el_larsen

    @tina turner
    you seems to forgot the pistons lakers final.
    kobe made the lakers lose,just because he wanted to shoot more than shaq.

  • bogoyme

    eBoy sucks heat b@lls. you talk bout the heat and his ‘gina expands bigger than his small brain anywayz… haha look at him bail out his team everytime anyone of you say something bad to them while he brandishes himself as ultimate know how to the facts so he can just say f@ck to kobe stuffs, haha too bad his heat will be deepthroating bulls or celtics b@lls come playoffs, weeehhh

  • http://slamonline.com Brad Long

    As Myles said, “There are dieties to be replaced.”.

  • http://gmail dirty frank

    Nothing to do with this post but I’ve seen nothing on this on Slam. R.I.P. Wes Leonard and Robert Garza. Two young men taken far too early.

  • http://slamonline BossTerry

    There will NEVER be another Eric Piatkowski… Unless someone with the last name of Piatkowski names their son Eric..

  • http://slamonline BossTerry

    ^ MAKE IT HAPPEN WALSH!!!!!

  • http://www.kb24.com The Seed

    Kobe can be top 1 to 3 all time in scoring list and win seven rings. Then yall HATERS can apologize later. Kobe has been the best player of his generation ask Sports Illustrated, TNT sports and plenty of other media outlets. Anybody who thinks Shaq and Duncan have a shot do not understand basketball. BOOK IT!!

  • chyea

    The biggest difference between Kobe and Mike is the mental aspect. Mike has never had the type of talent around him the way Kobe has, but he always used his teammates to get himself good looks and to keep them involved. Kobe plays with a lot of talent, yet most of his points still comes off isolations and he still jacks up ill-advised threes. A player as skilled as him, with as much talented teammates shouldn’t be taking tough shots at all.

  • flipnoyce

    LMAO at Phil!!! Phil quit after Shaq got traded and wrote a book about Kobe, exposing to the media that ball hog Hobe is uncoachable. Kobe score 81 points against a no good Raftors when Phil unretired, Phil then said Kobe might even be better than MJ. And thats when I said this dude is on CRACK!!!! Any fan boys who believe that Kobe is better than MJ was probably born in the late 90′s who is between the age of puberty to juvenile in todays society. Jordan shot the ball with ease even if he had 3 defenders on him while Kobe struggled and forces his shots with one DEFENDER. Kobe, and I will keep saying it that Kobe could not cover any all star caliber type of player in any of his games. I’m sorry to say this to all the Kobe fanatics.Kobe won’t even break the ONE spot to whom ever put on a Lakers uniform!!!! Kobe is great but JORDAN is simlply GREATER THAN……to X amount of powers!!!!!!

  • http://Slamonline.com LakeShow

    Second best to Jordan = Chopped Liver

  • http://Slamonline.com LakeShow

    Seed your forgetting that WINNING isn’t that important to Slam Fam. Tattoo’s, Athleticism and ability to wear a headband are a premiums here. like duhhh

  • http://sfdjklf.com Jukai

    As Myles said to me, “if there was ever a Spanish-American war, I’d kill Ricky Rubio first”
    He’s quite quotable.

  • flipnoyce

    If Iverson had his head right and just play his game untill his career was over, he would of broke scoring records faster than Kobe could keep him between his eyes. If you wanna talk about scoring AI is that man post MJ era!!!!

  • Hurricane

    Kobe’s points per attempt: 1.312, Jordan’s points per attempt: 1.316
    -
    CAN YOU IDIOTS COMPREHEND THAT, FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE DOESN’T MEAN S__T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-
    -
    KOBE TOOK WAY MORE 3s THAN JORDAN DID, WHICH ACCUMULATES FOR THE DIFFERENCE IN FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE
    -
    ALL IT SAYS IS THAT KOBE HAS A BAD SHOT SELECTION
    -
    & FOR ALL THE IDIOTS SAYING KOBE NEVER PLAYED IVERSON, CARTER, MCGRADY, WADE & JAMES IN THE PLAYOFFS, HOW IS IT KOBE’S FAULT THEY DIDN’T GET THERE????????YEAH, IDIOTS
    -
    KOBE IS EQUAL TO JORDAN RIGHT NOW, IF HE WINS HIS 6TH RINGS THEN HE WILL BE THE G.O.A.T.

  • dp

    @eboy. don’t be a hater coz that’s what it sounds like you are right now, you normally have some good insight but when it comes to kobe all you do is hate. sure he’s not perfect but he never said he was, sure he’s making some failed attempts at trying to get better, but at least he’s trying. but just for the record, kobe at his peak would smoke wade and lebron at their peaks. and if you’re gonna come back to me with stats then you don’t understand the game, you should switch over to baseball.

  • http://Slamonline.com LakeShow

    Sorry guys E(the 40 year old man)boy is a hit and run type of fella. He knows that facts back up to much for Kobe for him to stick around and argue ya’ll.

  • Hurricane

    JORDAN FANS SAY THAT JORDAN NEVER HAD A LEGIT CENTER, KOBE FANS SAY THAT KOBE WOULD DROP 100 ON THE PLAYERS JORDAN PLAYED AGAINST
    -
    EBOY IS A REEEEETAAAARRRDDD FOR MENTIONING WADE’S NAME IN THE SAME SENTENCE AS KOBE, WATCH THE ALL-STAR GAME AGAIN BUDDY, WADE COULDN’T STAY IN FRONT OF KOBE FOR A SECOND, WITH NO SCREENS SET LIKE IN A REGULAR GAME, STRAIGHT UP 1 ON 1, WADE WAS EMBARASSED SO HE ACCUSED KOBE OF GOING AFTER THE MVP, & IT’S EMBARASSING THAT THE EAST DOUBLE TEAMED KOBE IN THE ALL-STAR GAME, WHICH IS WHERE ALL OF DURANT’S POINTS CAME FROM
    -
    EBOY YOU SHOULDN’T BE TALKING ABOUT WOMEN AS IF THEY ARE A POSSESSION, IT’S NOT LIKE YOU GET ANY GIRLS, YOU ARE A GEEK, YOU SIT ON SLAM ALL DAY AND TALK NONSENSE, & AT NIGHT YOU JACK OFF TO LEBRON & WADE HIGHLIGHTS

  • http://slamonline BossTerry

    ^ wow.

  • Hurricane

    KOBE B___H SLAPPED LEBRON & WADE IN THE ALL-STAR GAME(WHICH MATTERS NONE), WADE & LEBRON B___H SLAPPED KOBE TWICE IN THE REGULAR SEASON(MATTERS NONE), KOBE B___H SLAPPED THEM WITH HIS POST-GAME WORKOUT & KOBE WILL B___H SLAP THEM AGAIN IN THE OFFSEASON WITH 6 RINGS ON HIS HAND
    -
    2011 NBA FINALS- LAKERS VS. BULLS- LAKERS IN 6 WITH FINAL GAME GOING TO LAST SECONDS

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Lake Show you do realize that the two cats mentioned as being better than Kobe were Duncan and Shaq?
    Tattos and losing don’t really apply to them.
    Kobe fans are crazy.

  • Hurricane

    OH & INCASE EBOY RESPONDS, WHICH HE WON’T BECAUSE HE IS A COWARD, I’M NOT GOING TO RESPOND BACK
    -
    I JUST EXPOSED YOU TO THE FOLKS THAT DON’T KNOW YOU, EBOY

  • http://www.slamonline.com Royal

    Duncan has a back tattoo… thug

  • http://Slamonline.com LakeShow

    Neither has won as much AP…

  • http://Slamonline.com LakeShow

    You think they are both “better” than Kobe AP?

  • http://slamonline BossTerry

    Cosign AllenP (6:45) and Royal(6:50).. Hey, atleast he’s not J.O.ing to Chris Bosh highlights.. haha.

  • http://sfdjklf.com Jukai

    Hurricane just made me want to believe anything that Eboy says just so I wont be associated with Hurricane.

  • http://sfdjklf.com Jukai

    I don’t think Duncan or Shaq are better than Kobe. But I don’t think it’s out of the realm of debate.

  • http://Slamonline.com LakeShow

    ^^ i can handle that one Juk’s. I’m not saying its out of debate.

  • tonyknorr

    @ Hurricane and LakeShow where the f**k did you learn math. check your numbers before posting. Kobe’s points per attempt is 1.305 and mike’s is 1.316. besides to take shots at somebody for not wanting to debate facts or statistics between the two is ridiculous because they honestly are not even close to comparable especially if one looks at the defensive side of the game. Also to anyone who thinks the elite players in todays game are better or more athletic you really must be young. Honestly, the game is more catered to those with individual scoring skills now then it has ever been. Its like mike said if he played in todays game with the lack of hand checking they allow he would have averaged 40 +. Athletically the players these days might look to be in better physical shape and stronger but mentally they are not nearly as tough as they used to be for the most part. Not a knock on Kobe because i think he is one of the few that is mentally tough but on average todays players would get wrecked in a street game by the guys jordan played against.

  • http://Slamonline.com LakeShow

    Did i post that tony? oh no i didn’t…

  • Art of Deception

    lol @ hurricane. the all caps wasn’t necessary. kobe will never be considered better than MJ. look at their resumes. even if we pretend that shaq wasn’t on his team for the first 3 chips, look at their resumes. kobe can only become the 2nd best player of all time. And that would be quite the accomplishment considering how polarizing a figure he is.

  • http://slamonline BossTerry

    Q- Whats the difference between Tiger and Kobe?
    A- Tiger doesn’t have to r@pe his groupies..

  • tonyknorr

    sorry lake show the math part of things was not meant to be directed at you.

  • flipnoyce

    @hurricane comment 6:27. you’ve must have been born a few years before Katrina hit!!!! If you know basketball then you must realize that in order for Kobe to play Bron and Wade in the playoffs they must be playing in the same conference East or West.Playoffs are not finals, there’s a difference and FYI Iverson did played Kobe in the finals to represent the east in 01 and AI also played Kobe in the playoffs when he went to Denver!!!!

  • BostonBaller

    What did I miss? Oh well… I bounced around on some of the comments so color me ignorant but are Jukai & Enigmatic ladies? Not that it matters I’m just ask’n.

  • Babbito

    LOL wow SLAM. I read the original article and the title is so misleading. all he says is they are 2 different players and it’s not fair to compare the 2.

    Honestly it doesn’t matter if Jordan shot a better % or what not. It just means they are 2 different types of players. Yeah Kobe patterns his game after Jordan but doesn’t mean he plays just like Jordan. Kobe is more of a jump shooter yes, he uses the regular season as a big experiment and a refining tool because once he gets to the playoffs he changes up his whole game. He’s shot 50% the last 3 post seasons. at the end of the day Kobe does whatever it takes to win, when it matters. And he’s done just that.

    6th ring coming this year, with possibly 2 more after that. and the fact that he got those with shooting a lower % means absolutely nothing.

  • Jay Reyes

    shall we go back to the matter at hand? Kobe patterned his game to Jordan because of the similarity in the position they’re playing. so did Jordan patterned his game to Dr. J. that’s just how it is. as for comparing the two, it’s true that they both have the same mentality but do bear in mind that athletes who have that behavior tend to excel. and that behavior is not only seen on the two but to other athletes as well, but not as well-documented as Kobe and Jordan. which only means that they are two individuals who both have the same mentality but not the same person. Jordan loves golf, Kobe loves futbol.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Bostonballer
    somebody is using people’s names to post fake comments.
    They are men.

  • keef

    Hurricane is a pretty young kid lol. Why are u yelling thru caps? Lmao It’s like Samuel Adams Jackson. “I’m not yellin! That’s how I talk!”Simmer down lil kid. Kobe is not and never will be better than Jordan.

  • http://sfdjklf.com Jukai

    Thanks for gettin’ my back Allen!

  • KB8TOSG8

    Babbito made the most sense here lol. Jordan took it to the rack more than Kobe. He was athletically superior and had large palms which gave him more control on the ball mid air than Kobe could ever dream about. Jordan made more of his damage from the post area supplemented by his midrange game. Kobe? Exactly opposite. Jordan’s teams didnot have a legit post threat. HE was the post the post threat. His team was loaded with shooters who knocked down shots and were a very good defensive team. Kobe’s teams however are loaded with post threats but pathetic perimeters ( No Ron-Ron, not you….. ) compared to those Bulls and hence his game needs to be different. And saying Kobe can’t pass is idiotic lol. That’s all I’m gonna say. Also, I have one question : On the offensive end, isn’t the basic point is how many points you create per shot???? Kobe gets 1.30 points. MJ gets 1.31 points. Not much of a difference. The 3s Kobe scorers compensates for his bad shot selection. What’s wrong with that? On the D end though, MJ was an absolute beast and consistently played great D. Kobe can be a beast only in short bursts ( See Q4s close games. His D in close games is vastly underrated ) Also, remember when Pau was out for the first 20 odd games last year and Kobe went to the post like MJ? Result : 51%. Don’t believe me? Look it up. Skills wise, Kobe is better than MJ. Overall player, MJ>Kobe

  • KB8TOSG8

    Also, all the guys who picked Duncan/Shaq before Kobe better damn pick Hakeem and to a lesser extent Malone. Just sayin’.

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