Michael Jordan and Ideology
Posing the question "who is the greatest of all-time?" is not a search for truth, but rather a statement of ideology. The question is reflects a peculiar set of values that privilege "success" and "winning" over honor, sportsmanship, and graciousness.
I grew up rooting for Joe Montana and Magic Johnson and want to write about how their playing styles reflect different - and better - values than Michael Jordan's. The legacy of Jordan is this new era of sports where athletes are only judged by winning. The result is widespread use of PEDs, mega-teams created by joining forces with other stars, and pro teams tanking to get higher draft picks.
2 comments:
My bleeding, ideological heart goes out to Magic and Montana. They weren't concerned with winning like Michael Jordan was, just concerned with ideology of how to play the game.
Magic Johnson - five N.B.A. championships.
Joe Montana - four Super Bowl victories.
the argument jordan is the "greatest of all time" privileges winning to the exclusion of all other values in sport. i think this is foolish. winning matters, but it not the only thing. it is not the only thing. we are talking about team sports where teammates, coaching, level of opponent play, and luck play an enormous role. the "winning is all that matters mantra" is for wannabe athletes turned ESPN announcers and men pretending to be tough.
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