The basketball season is winding down. March Madness is over, and the NBA playoffs are almost here. This year, the NBA playoff season will involve even more hype than usual over the greatest players, and whichever team wins the championship, there may well be talk of the "greatest player ever" thing. If Kobe wins a sixth ring, the hype around him tying Jordan for championships will result in inevitable comparisons. If LeBron's Heat gets the title, even with him sharing the glory with Wade and Bosh, the talk of whether King James finally ranks on the all time greats list will be rekindled. If the surprising Spurs follow up on their great regular season to get a 5th title for Tim Duncan, everyone will be reminded of what a steady and superb all-around big man he has been, and the comparisons to the all time great buy guys will be in full throttle. And speaking of all time great big men, a 5th title for Shaq, and 2nd title for Garnett, by the Celtics will spur lots of talk about how their greatness compares with the big men basketball gods of the past.
For us basketball history nerds, such discussions are always great fun. There have been many all time greats lists put together over the years, and the debates those lists generate are a blast. But I'm going to make the argument that the conventional wisdom standard for the all time greatest player which is assumed by so many writers - that Michael Jordan is the undisputed number one against whom all other players have to be measured and found wanting - is like most conventional wisdom - wrong.
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