History in Thin Air

There has been a movement recently to demonize Michael Jordan's stance as a hard line owner in the NBA lockout. It seems he is in the group of owners who wants the players to take 47% of basketball related income and not the 50% that was offered or the 53% the players asked for.

Media pundits like Jason Whitlock and NBA'ers like Ron Artest and Stephon Marbury have accused Jordan of selling out the players. They seem to think that because they bought his shoes and idolized him that he should be more willing to give up his own share of the pie.

This is a delirious forgetting of who Jordan is. By all accounts Jordan is the most competitive athlete who ever lived. Anybody who needs reminding should find his Hall of Fame induction speech. For years all we heard was how Jordan was merciless in trying to beat opponents at everything. On the court, playing poker, golf, etc. all Jordan did was try and crush people. If you had the bad luck of being on his team and not helping him win then he would crush you too. Kwame Brown still hasn't recovered.

Yet now in a labor negotiation that will end with a clear winner and loser we expect Jordan to be charitable despite him never having shown any inclination to do so in the past. Right.

To look at this as Jordan selling out to join the owners is a mistake. Jordan plays for himself and always has. When he was a player he needed the team to win so he could be a winner. Now that he is an owner he needs the owners to win big so he can be a big winner too. Believe me if there was some third option that allowed Jordan to win bigger he'd choose that one in a heartbeat.

This isn't to say that Jordan is right or wrong, just that he's consistent. The character traits that made him the best on the court don't just disappear when he stops lacing them up. It's a pure delusion of the sellout chorus that it could ever be any other way. Now that the players have rejected the owners last 50/50 offer and are going to decertify, Jordan and his posse are going to dominate this thing. That's what really bothers Whitlock, Artest, et al. They can see what's coming. The owners are going to bury the players now that they've launched the decertification nuclear option and the idea of the evil rich owners winning again offends their sensibilities and makes the think less clearly. So they lash out at someone they think should be "with them" whether it's rational or not.

They can whine and complain all they want and at the end of this process, whether they lose a year playing or not, Jordan will be standing on top looking happily down at all the people he's just beaten down. Just like he's always done.