Looking for the new Jordan

SPORTS

When the Cleveland Cavaliers' point guard Lebron James made his way out of San Antonio Spurs's arena Friday morning, he looked deflated. Apart from the fact that James and his teammates had been comprehensively beaten by the Spurs in the NBA finals, the fact that he had been expected to perform a miracle and lead his team to the NBA Championship probably wore him down more.

There is another factor which may have played a pivotal role in the rather disappointing performance by King James, as he is fondly called, in the NBA finals. He received the unwanted and somewhat dreaded tag of being labelled the next Michael Jordan. Like others in the past, James suffered from the fact that he was being compared to Jordan. It's a question that lingers in each basketball fan's mind. Will there ever be another Jordan?

So far there have been only pretenders to the throne. A couple of years ago it was LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant. When Allen Iverson led the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA finals five years ago, experts thought he was the man. Later Dwayne Wade too suffered the same syndrome with Miami Heat. And names such as Vince Carter and Grant Hill have also been bandied about in the eight years since MJ hung up his boots.

The fact, though, is that no one has come as close as James. He single-handedly carried his team to the finals against all odds, defeating defending champions Miami Heat. So phenomenal was his impact that, in one game, James was the only player from his team to score in the last 17 minutes of the match. James not only wears the number 23 jersey, like MJ, but has the talent and attitude to be compared to him.

Comparisons are good, but as Utah Jazz's Karl Malone and probably Jordan's toughest adversary once said, "Put it like this: there's a heck of a lot of comparisons going on, but only Michael is Michael. They should leave it alone." Alas, if only fans and experts would subscribe to that theory and understand the fact that athletes like Jordan come along once in a lifetime. We should consider ourselves lucky to have witnessed him play, rather than perpetually be searching for the next MJ!