Possibility of NBA Retiring Michael Jordan’s 23

          Everyone knows that Michael Jordan is more than likely the best player in NBA history. If you don’t agree with that, since there is no definitive list, you should agree that he is definitely top 2, but definitely reconsider your stance on who is number 1. However, as great as Jordan was on the court, can you mention him and someone like Jackie Robinson in the same sentence? Probably not, but Lebron James seems to try to.

The Thought

We may not know if Lebron James is going to have a new team for the 2010-2011 season, but we do know that he will have a new jersey number. James said he filed paperwork to change his number for next season from #23 to #6, the number he wore for Team USA during the Summer Olympics. James has been enthusiastic about his beliefs that the NBA should retire
Michael Jordan’s #23, so that nobody can play in the National Basketball Association while wearing that number again.

Baseball’s Equivalent

In 1997, Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson’s #42, preventing any MLB player on any team from wearing the number, not including players who were already wearing 42 when the number’s retirement occurred. As we all know, Jackie Robinson is nationally recognized for breaking the MLB’s color barrier in 1947 when he became the league’s first African American player. He is an inspiration to many people not necessarily for his play on the diamond, but his demeanor both on and off the field. Although he faced much adversity as the token black player in the MLB at the time, he knew that he could not reciprocate when he was the victim of hate crime because if he ruined his chances of playing in the MLB by responding to such actions, then he was ruining any chances of another black player in professional baseball for probably a number of years. Therefore, there really is not much of an argument against Robinson’s number being retired throughout the MLB, but what about Jordan?

Retire #23?

I want to reiterate that Michael Jordan is the best player in NBA history because I don’t want the thought of personal bias to come out of this argument. That argument is that the NBA should definitely NOT retire Jordan’s #23. Although the best player in the history of his profession, Michael does not represent what Robinson did, or in many ways still does, and that is being the beginning of the end of segregation in sports. Having the shear courage to go against the grain, even when it could have cost him his life. Although Jordan was better at his sports, he cannot hold a candle to what Jackie Robinson did for black athletes, in fact, Jordan may not have been in the NBA had it not been for Robinson. 42 wasn’t just retired for his play on the field. If that were the case, only the Los Angeles, Brooklyn when Robinson played, Dodgers would have retired his number. The entire league retired his number for the reasons previously stated. Jordan never faced the hardships that Robinson had to endure. When Jordan played basketball, it was just about basketball, whereas when Robinson played baseball, it certainly wasn’t just about baseball. And that is why Robinson deserved his number to be retired by his league, and Jordan does not.