The Greatest (A Brief Logical Treatise) Part 1

1. The Greatest has to be both aesthetically pleasing and overwhelm advanced statistical metrics.

2. Given premise 1.,  Michael Jordan is The Greatest.

3. Given Premise 1., Kobe Bryant is the best player in the game right now and will go down as the second best shooting guard of all time/Jordan's backup on the All-God team.

Premise 1. is justified via the Magic/Kareem example. Kareem's best Offensive Ratings would shame anybody ever. Yet, Magic is seen as the masthead of the Showtime Champions because even a dying Filipino child who had no intentional states directed towards the formal properties of Basketball could see that what Magic made was beauty. Thus, the man who put the ball in the basket more than anybody ever is neglected and abandoned to shape-up ads.

If you can't see a different vein of that same aesthetically satisfying movement running throughout Kobe and Michael's games, then you do not know Basketball as you should know it.

2. shouldn't need to be elaborated.

3. demands a bit more. We know Chris Paul leads in PER and adj. +/- and probably win-shares. LeBron is usually close behind while Kobe consistently makes it to the top 5 in above metrics, excepting the overrated win-shares when he 's healthy. Because of 1., we generally neglect big men so sorry Timmy, Pau-y and Dwight-y. Chris Paul if he had 3 more inches and made it to Jerry West height could be as visually satisfying as 00-11 Bryant but he isn't. If you can watch LeBron waddle duck footed up the floor, hoist a hideous, wounded jump shot and dribble in awkwardly syncopated patterns, then more power to you. Interestingly enough, Deron Williams comes closer than Dwayne Wade to being mentioned here. Deron's good enough to be Wade's shooting coach and then some.

Don't worry. This is only part 1. These types of things aren't meant to end.