By Joe Joe Wright

joejoe.wright@cordeledispatch.com

I suspect that Cleveland will win a game over Golden State but only 1 game. The other night I am sitting in my recliner with Miss Coach watching the game and next thing  I knew she was telling me to wake up and watch the end of this brutal match-up. I awoke to see that Cleveland had been beaten by 33 points.

I had already watched part of their beat down of 104-89 on Thursday and I was not impressed. Sunday night almost put me in a coma. Add to their awful playing and the loss of Kevin Love and King James is going to need a miracle to get his team on the winning track. Lebron may have been the best player of the last 10 years or so but I am afraid Stephen Curry has taken his title. Oh and he will not ever catch Michael Jordan’s 6 NBA titles nor the title greatest NBA player of all time. Jordan played a total of 17 years in the NBA and he took off in 1994 to play baseball just about in the middle of his prime years or there would be 7 NBA titles. Also his last 3 years were with the Washington Wizards and they were horrible. Now Lebron has 13 years in the NBA so to match up to Jordan he has to win the next 4 NBA titles in a row. Buzzzzzzzzzz nope not going to happen. Now don’t get me wrong Lebron is a great player and has capacity with in him to carry a team on his shoulders. I suspect that when they get to Cleveland he will do just that. However after awhile that team is going to get real heavy, after all they ain’t  “his brother”.

My best guess is Golden State wins the series 4 games to 1. I really hope I am wrong because the league needs great match-ups in the finals but I don’t see it happening.

So to all the young fans out there that think Lebron is greater than Jordan, nope sorry he ain’t. Nor is he greater than Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant or Shaq and maybe a few others. He is a great player, actually one the all time best but he is not, “the all time best” nor will he be. Also “Air” Jordan has also recently become the first billionaire athlete. Jordan played when he was terribly ill with the flu and he showed out while doing it. This younger generation will never understand that kind of commitment. After all many of the star athletes born since the 1980’s really don’t under stand doing without, not really they don’t not like the older generations. Their work ethic just isn’t the same. Many players today will sit out because they have a headache or a hangnail so I don’t think Lebron will claim the title ‘the greatest”, oh that belongs to Muhammad Ali anyway and why does it belong to Ali? Simple Ali may have dodged the draft and I don’t like that. Ali may have talked a lot but facts are facts. Ali got his Heavyweight belt stripped for the draft issue and he fought it and the US Supreme Court unanimously over turned his conviction. Then he got back in the ring and got a TKO from Joe Frasier.

Ali didn’t cry and scream, he got cheated or anything he just went to work and systematically destroyed George Foreman, Ken Norton, Joe Frasier and many others to reclaim the title. Then he lost it and reclaimed it again. His never say quit attitude is what makes Ali “the greatest” after all as Rocky Balboa said in his last “Rocky” movie, “it ain’t about how hard you hit its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward that’s how winning is done.” Well Ali took a lot and never stopped moving forward so whether you like him or don’t like him he is still the “greatest”.

“Anyone that doesn’t think Muhammad Ali is the heavyweight Champion, just climb in the ring with him”   Howard Cosell