Wade's Thunderous Rim-Rocker, James' Number Switch Make Headlines

Shut it down. Good night. Book Dwayne Wade’s place in NBA history.

Despite a loss at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and an announcement that LeBron James is planning to change his jersey number from 23 to six to honor the best player that ever lived in Michael Jordan, Wade made the headlines.

James missed a dunk attempt on one end of the floor. Wade scooped up the rebound, and traveled 94-feet before redefining the term dunking it in somebody’s eye .

Wade took off from the middle of the free-throw lane and launched himself into legend with the greatest dunk ever in an NBA game. Better than Michael’s over Patrick Ewing , better than John Starks while playing for the Knicks on Jordan to return the favor. Almost as good as Vince Carter’s insane leap over a 7-footer in the Olympics .

For the record, the Allen Iverson's dunk off a Derrick Coleman free-throw miss is still one of my favorites. And you can't forget James White when talking about the art of dunking. Europeans never saw anything like what White did in a Turkish dunk contest in 2008.

If James is the best player in the NBA, Wade is a close second. Wade is better than Kobe Bryant.

None better than Michael Jordan in the third row to witness such greatness. Anderson Varejao was posterized. Now he has another claim to fame other than his second worst hair in the NBA (behind Oklahoma City Thunder’s million dollar a minute man Robert Swift…the worst hair in the history of the NBA). Instant YouTube classic.

Posterized: When a player dunks it directly on a player's head for a nice photo.

The slam-dunk is still the most exciting play in sports. It beats a 99-yard touchdown pass, a craftily carried weaved punt return, or a grand slam in baseball. It’s still only worth two points, but Wade’s effort was worthy of the foul call on Varejao alone for an extra point.

But James also made headlines on the night not only for his 34 points in the 111-104 victory over Miami. Following the game, James announced he plans to start a petition to retire Michael Jordan’s No. 23 entirely, thus switching his number to six (one can only presume because of Julius Erving).

LeBron James “gets it”.

James even understands. Without Michael Jordan, the No. 23 would be meaningless. The NBA would be an average league.

The NBA is now the best-managed league in sports. And if LeBron James says nobody should wear the No. 23, nobody should ever don a No. 23 jersey ever again.

Michael was the NBA, even when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were still around, but fading from their early 80’s prime. Michael Jordan is the greatest player that ever lived.

Uniform number changes happen often these days. Kobe Bryant isn’t even immune, switching from his original No. 8 to No. 24 out of nowhere after the 2005-06 season. Michael Jordan once famously returned to the NBA from a semi-retirement with the No. 45 for a brief period, before switching it back unannounced in the playoffs.

David Beckham of the Los Angeles Galaxy picked 23 after moving to Real Madrid from Manchester United in 2003. Beckham continued to wear 23 in Major League Soccer for the Galaxy instead of opting for his original favored No. 7.

LeBron is a different player than Michael. LeBron is better in some ways, not even close in many others. For instance, Jordan was arguably the greatest defender in the history of the game, a fact often forgotten because Jordan scored over 32,000 points in his illustrious career.

There was a brief period in time where the Most Valuable Player award in the NBA was “the best player not named Michael Jordan” award.  Jordan should have won the award every single full-season he played while in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls.

To put Jordan’s accolades in perspective, Bird is considered one of the greatest players of all-time, winning three straight MVP awards between 1984-1986. Bird played 13 seasons—all with the Boston Celtics—and was a 12-time All-Star.

Bird scored just 21,791 points in his career, more than 11,000 less than Jordan did during his entire career. 

Two major events happened to the NBA last night on a night there was an NFL game on television that nobody watched (with good reason since the 49ers edged the Bears, 10-6, in a game setting football back about 50 years). 

The NBA is doing just fine.

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