Can Anyone Ever Surpass Michael Jordan?

Michael Jordan is almost universally considered to be the best basketball player of all time. His work ethic, drive, ego, and ability all carried him to the top of the sport.Jordan was marketable, that is true. However, if he was a bad player and had not skill and no character, he would not have been successful.Back then, there were other targets that could have been used for commercials, but Mike is Mike and people knew he was special.

He has in many ways become the Babe Ruth of baseball in that he is almost a myth.

Michael is a legend. However, the question is: Can anyone ever surpass him?

In theory, yes, in practice, well let's think about this.Ever since Michael retired, there have been numerous players dubbed "The Next Michael Jordan." While the list is endless, I will list some of the more popular and well known examples:

Grant Hill, Vince Carter, Penny Hardaway, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James.Grant Hill was brilliant for his first six seasons in the league after which he was hit with injuries and has been a consistent role player ever since. So, basically, he is out of the picture.

Vince Carter never truly reached his potential and was every inconsistent season after season mostly due to injury problems. This guy is now out of the conversation.

Penny Hardaway was also a very inconsistent scorer who failed to live up to his potential as a scorer, but still proved to be a very good all around player. He was out of the conversation quickly.

Next comes Allen Iverson who is the first serious candidate, well sort of. He was a very consistent scorer in his prime and his defense was one of the best in the league for many years.

However, his ego and superstar status found a way into his head and they overshadowed what is undoubtedly a Hall of Fame career. He is very sadly out by a mile.

Kobe Bryant is widely considered to be the best player since Michael retired. He has a great mid-range game and is a winner.

However, one point that goes against him is defensive output. Now we know stats are not everything, but when looking at his numbers and MJ's, it is a bit underwhelming.

In fact the popular stat website, basketball-reference.com, has a statistic they call defensive win shares that in a sense calculates a player's defensive output.

Out of the top active players Kobe finds himself No. 11. All time, he is 73rd (Michael is 19th). Bottom line, his defense is widely overrated. Which is why he is not in the picture for replacing Jordan.

Now on to LeBron James who is the last guy I am going to bore you with. He has great statistics and a widely improving game, but he just does not seem to have the mentality Jordan had.

Jordan was a winner, and since Jordan retired, Kobe is the closest we have seen in terms or that mentality. Now, I am not in any way a Lakers fan or a Kobe fan so please don't start accusing me of either.

So without the mentality, James finds himself short.

Out of all the active players and the recent players, these are the only ones that find themselves close to Jordan. None of these players have reached the numbers Jordan has put out through his career and that should also be mentioned.

Since none of them are up to the task, we have to begin to think of when that one player comes who can surpass him.

It's hard to think that there can never be a better player than Michael Jordan. Not just in terms of skill, but also because of the one single emotion which all human beings share: stubbornness.

The two that are constantly talked about are LBJ & Kobe.

LBJ *could* be (or really could *have* been) Michael Jordan. At the end of the day, the NBA is these guys' employer. Yes, it's their place of WORK. I don't know how many people here on the B/R are over the age of 23 and really work. When you work at a place, you are judged by your worth (value) which is clarified based on your efficiency. So based on how efficient LBJ has been over his 7 years so far, I'd say it's pretty close to that of MJ's career, if not almost identical. However he never closed the big deal. Not even once. Nor does he have the mentality and competitive drive that Jordan possessed. So he's out of the picture.

Kobe can't be as good as MJ. His stats show it. That's the bottom line. He was never as efficient at work. He had the same mind set and drive but he never had the same mid range as Jordan until the 2008 season (late in his career). He also couldn't drive like Jordan (his vertical leap wasn't even close to Jordan's which made Jordan a superior athlete and able to get to the hole easier). Lastly, Jordan's on and off the ball defense was ahead of Kobe's.

One player that could potentially do it is Kevin Durant if he stays on pace. His PER has gone up significantly (just like LeBron's first 3 years...and MJ's for that matter). He has the talent, height, speed, wingspan, etc. The only thing he needs to improve on is his build. If he can put on another 20-25 LBS without losing speed & jump (in fact he should work on his jump and increase it another 2 inches), he'll be unstoppable.