Column: MJ: Even better than we think?

The American sports-viewing public has always been (and probably always will be) unbelievably quick to anoint successors to a great player. Many players have been called “the next Jordan” over the past 10 years or so, ranging from Kobe Bryant (no, but that doesn’t stop some people) to Dwyane Wade (still no) to Grant Hill (poor knees) to Penny Hardaway (not even close) to Vince Carter (yeah, if Jordan were a lazy whiner instead of the most competitive human being ever) to LeBron James (we’ll see).

You know what this tells me? Going into old-guy mode, which isn’t easy to do at age 21, we young folks don’t know what we’re talking about. Most of us college students were barely teenagers when Jordan finally retired after his forgettable tenure with the Washington Wizards. Most of us were barely born during his true prime. We don’t know Michael.

Let’s start with scoring, only the tip of the iceberg here but an important tip. Kobe Bryant has won two scoring titles, at ages 27 and 28. Dwyane Wade? One, at age 27. LeBron James recently claimed he could win the scoring title every year if he wanted to: He’s won once so far at age 25, and Kevin Durant may have something to say about future years.

Michael Jordan had the highest points-per-game average in the NBA when he was 23 years old. He scored the most points per game in the NBA when he was 24 years old. When he was 25 years old, his scoring average was higher than that of everyone else in the league. When Michael was 26 years old, he lost his title to — oh, wait, no, he didn’t. He didn’t stop winning scoring titles until his mysterious “baseball sabbatical” between 1993 and 1995, after which he abruptly returned to the NBA after 18 months, scored 32 points per game in the playoffs and, the next year, went back to winning scoring titles. He won at ages 32, 33 and 34, for a total of nine titles in his career.

Let me say that again. With the exception of his rookie year (28 points per game as a 21 year old) and his last two seasons after three years away, Michael Jordan was the best scorer in the NBA every single full season he played. Because he played a full 82-game season his rookie year and Bernard King and Larry Bird didn’t, Jordan had more points than anybody else in the league every full season he played until his second return to the NBA at age 38.

What about winning championships? Jordan and his underwhelming supporting casts struggled in the 1980s against Eastern Conference juggernaut Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons teams. But when they got over the hump? Oh boy. Jordan’s Chicago Bulls won titles in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998, with the two non-victories coming during Jordan’s baseball years. He led the league in playoff scoring average in every one of those title years and played more than 40 minutes per game in each postseason of his career. What’s more, the old knock on Kobe doesn’t apply to Jordan. Kobe didn’t win without Shaq until last season, and even then he at least had Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Michael Jordan and his super-wingman Scottie Pippen (who is underrated himself, come to think of it) won six titles in eight years with centers like Bill Cartwright, Stacey King, Will Perdue, Bill Wennington and Luc Longley.

You can look them up if you aren’t familiar, or you can take my word for it: They aren’t exactly Tim Duncan and David Robinson, let alone Patrick Ewing, or even Andrew Bogut.

They might not even have been as good as Udonis Haslem.

So let’s try to stop comparing everyone to Michael Jordan. You know when we can start again?

When LeBron James, or anybody else, wins six scoring titles and six NBA titles in the span of eight years, shoots more than 10 free throws per game in the playoffs at age 34, at 6 feet, 6 inches and 200-ish pounds (remember, LeBron is 6 feet, 8 inches or so and at least 260 pounds), leads the league in steals three times (yeah, Jordan did that too) and makes it even remotely OK to say the words “Michael Jordan is not the greatest basketball player in history.” Look Michael Jordan up on basketball-reference.com some time.

He’s even better than you think. He’s better than those of us in college can remember.

He is both the greatest, and one of the most underrated, players of all time.