Channing Frye, who played alongside LeBron James in Cleveland, reduced legend Michael Jordan to the status of a singles scoring machine. A little reductive considering the statistics of the legend of the Chicago Bulls.
“I never considered Michael Jordan the best player of all time.” That one sentence from Channing Frye, when a documentary series about the Chicago Bulls star is currently airing on Netflix, and is a resounding success, should be enough to set social media antle. And to fuel the endless debate of the best player of all time, between Jordan’s fans and those of LeBron James, at the same time. Channing Frye, who was the King’s lieutenant in Cleveland, winning the title in 2016 alongside him, logically decided.
Frye: “Jordan only had one job, it was to score”
“I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve never been a Fan of Michael Jordan. I think LeBron James is the best,” he said on NBC’s Talkin’ Blazers podcast. And he argues: “Michael Jordan is amazing, but his job in the team was to score, right? He had one of the best teams with two ‘tweeners’ (the term is used to refer to a player capable of playing multiple positions) that were Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen. Rodman and Pippen… And we can add Toni Kukoc and Ron Harper, who deserve more recognition in my opinion.”
“Michael Jordan had only one job, which was to score,” he continued, a little reductive. And he did it at an incredible rate. But I don’t think his way of winning can last today. The players wouldn’t want to play with him.” Michael Jordan, six-time NBA champion, is known to the general public for his offensive brilliance.
But he was above all a poison on both sides of the field, endowed with extraordinary athletic qualities. For example, he is the only player in history to have accumulated 200 interceptions and 100 counters two years in a row. In 1988, his most successful year, Jordan received the MVP, Leading Scorer and Defender of the Year award. Unrivalled performance.
