"Madison Square Magic"

What is up Sports Fanatics? Let me start off by throwing three numbers at you...55, 61, and 52....If you are confused and don't know where I am taking this, then I will make it easier and give you three names to go with those numbers, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. You see those are the most points that each individual has scored as members of the opposing team at Madison Square Garden the Home of The New York Knicks.

You may now be asking why I am pin pointing these three future NBA Hall of Famers, well it is simple. Since the end of the Jordan era, an era where Michael took the NBA to a whole new level in the mid 80's well into the late 90's many players of today are often compared and some even try to pattern their games after the "Great One". Let's face it, the name Michael Jordan alone would sell out any NBA arena in a matter of minutes during his playing days.

Since the retirement of "His Airness" several young and gifted players have dawned the steps of the NBA but there have been a certain few that were unfairley labled the next Michael Jordan. Let me put that to rest right now, "there will never be another Michael Jordan" with that said here are the names of a few who were labled by the Media as the next big thing. I will go as far back as Harold Miner the talented Shooting Guard out of USC who because of his amazing atheleticism was deemed "Baby Jordan". Well Baby Jordan's success at USC to me was average at best, and his short lived NBA career was even worse. Other guys who would draw comparison were J.R. Rider from UNLV, Vince Carter and Jerry Stackhouse both from Jordan's Alma Mater North Carolina. Rider like Miner's NBA Career could never really get going, Carter and Stackhouse have both had pretty good NBA Careers, but could never live up to expectation of their Tarheel Predecessor which in all fairness was not the fault of any of these guys, the Media pretty much set the standards. By the way Vince is having a pretty good season with the Nets, while Stackhouse's career my be slowly dwindling down.

Two guys are who are now NBA Supserstars and are constantly drawing the Jordan comparison are Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. It seems as though everything that these guys do on the court is often being compared to M.J......many think that both Bryant and James could possibly be better than Jordan.....Ebonically speaking "Imma have to disagree with that", which brings me back to my original topic "Madison Square Magic".

Why Madison Square Garden? I'll tell you why, any Sports fan knows that when you talk about the NBA, that the Mecca of Basketball, The World's Most Famous Arena is Madison Square Garden. It's the one arena where visiting players want to really shine and have fun with Spike Lee in the process. The Big Three (Michael, Kobe, LeBron) have all had really big nights at the Garden, for Kobe and LeBron their biggest Garden success have both come within the last week, and the questions are now being asked "Are their Garden perfomances greater than Michael's?

Let's go back to almost 14 years ago, March 28, 1995 the night in Garden History where Michael Jordan light up the Knicks for 55 points 4 rebounds, and 2 assist. Fast forwarding to February 2, 2009 another night in Garden History where Kobe Bryant set a record by scoring the most points as a member of the opposing team when he put up 61 points, with 2 rebounds, and 3 assist. Hold the fast forward button slightly because we don't want to go to far, we will stop at February 4, 2009, the night where LeBron James recorded a triple double and set a record for having the third highest point total as a visitor with 52 points, but was most impressive is the fact that he also recorded 10 rebounds, while dishing 11 assist. Now the argument becomes, who's night was most impressive? Well let's see.

Kobe of course scored 61 points while shooting 19-31 from the field, LeBron exploded for 52 by going 17-33 from the field while M.J. lit up the score board for 55 while shooting 21-37 from the field. From a statistical standpoint, Kobe only missed 12 of his 31 shots, while both LeBron and Michael missed 16 attempts each. Not taking anything away from Kobe or LeBron, I still say that Michael's perfomances should go down as the greatest, and I will offer a few reasons.

Michael did it against a New York Knicks Squad that was far more superior than the current one. This is a team that featured Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Anthony Mason, Charles Oakley, Charles Smith, Derrick Harper, and Hubert Davis. That New York Knicks team was also very physical and one of the best Defensive Teams in the league and a true Championship Contender. After all they were the defending Eastern Conference Champions. The next reason and the most important reason was that Michael Jordan was just returning from a 17 month retirement and was only in his fifth game. The NBA Season was nearing the end, and plus he did it wearing the number 45 Jersey (not that this mattered) :). Even with the layoff Jordan was still in pretty good physical shape, but was no where near in properbasketball form.

I am not discrediting what Kobe and LeBron did, but let's face it, this current Knicks Franchise should not even be mentioned in the same sentence as the 94-95 Squad. I have mad respect for Chris Duhon, Quentin Richardson, Jared Jeffries, David Lee, and Al Harrington, but if Michael had been playing against this group he probably would have scored 70 on that night. There are several who will disagree with me, and that is cool I am only giving my opinion, but the facts speak for themselves and Micheal did it at a point in his career when many people said that he didnt have it anymore. Agree or Disagree Fam but do it tastefully.
By: William Terrell