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To Michael Jordan worshippers and LeBron James haters: MJ had bad games too!

Shawn Windsor
Detroit Free Press

Everyone is complaining about the NBA playoffs.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) reacts in the third quarter against the Indiana Pacers at Quicken Loans Arena.

And no, I don’t just mean the crowd bemoaning the blowouts and sweeps and lack of buzzer-beaters. I’m referring, of course, to the rabid defenders of Michael Jordan’s legacy. The cultish caretakers of His Airness, worried that LeBron James’ current playoff run could – gasp! – dent the Jordan mythology.

Forget all the chatter about boring playoff games and competitive imbalance and the inevitability of the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors trilogy. The most gripping topic this spring is how LeBron compares to Jordan.

Besides, the NBA has always been top-heavy. Maybe there weren’t this many early-round blowouts, but the best teams win. Or at least get to the Finals.

This isn’t hockey, or baseball, where a goalie or a pitcher can upend a more talented team. Just look at the Nashville Predators. They tied for sixth place in the NHL’s Western Conference. Now they’re in the Stanley Cup Finals.

That’d be like the Memphis Grizzlies making the NBA Finals.

Um, no.

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I think most fans know the history of the league, they just choose to forget, because it’s more satisfying to romanticize an era that never happened. Which brings us back to Jordan.

Yes, HE did happen. And keeps happening.

Because for so many of us he represents the apex of the golden era of basketball, when the NBA burst into our collective consciousness and spread its high-flying act around the world.

A close up of Michael Jordan as he looks on during a 1989 game.

He is a symbol. That makes him immortal. And that explains why it’s so easy for Jordan worshippers to forget he ever lost a game, let alone a playoff game.

It’s a cult. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

How else do we explain the Internet glee after James’ Cavaliers lost to the Celtics on Sunday night in Cleveland? How else to explain the immediate dissection of his subpar performance?

Michael never had a game like that. Michael would’ve kept shooting. Michael would’ve crushed Boston’s soul. Then dunked on it while sticking his tongue out. Michael. Michael. Michael.

James responded Tuesday in Game 4 with 34 points on 15-for-27 shooting in a 112-99 Cavs win.

But back to Sunday's Game 3. The truth is, James had a bad game. A startling game, mostly because until Monday night, he’d been playing the best basketball of his career.

Yet it wasn’t just that. It was how he was playing. Efficient? Yes. Joyful? Always. Ruthless? Finally. But more than these things, too.

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He was playing basketball in a way that looked different, new. It was a combination of size, speed, athleticism, skill and IQ that felt like the future.

This display began to unnerve the Jordan congregation. Because Jordan was always the future.

It got worse when various basketball analysts, reporters and the like began to whisper that James might actually be capable of passing Jordan as the greatest of all time. Headlines began popping up daily.

Cavaliers forward LeBron James, right, blocks a shot by Celtics guard Avery Bradley during the first half of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals May 19, 2017 in Boston.

“Is LeBron Better Than Jordan?”

“Has The King Caught His Airness?”

Like the White House surrogates sent to spin their agenda on Sunday morning talk shows, the Jordan cultists pushed back.

Blasphemy! Heresy! Buffoonery!

Then Sunday night happened, and the cultists got the ammo they were craving.

The Cavaliers lost at the buzzer. James scored 11 points. Worse, in their minds, he took only 13 shots.

Proof of his lack of guts, and character, and will to win. Jordan would’ve gone down swinging, they argued.

Of which I say: enough. And: so what?

Jordan lost games. He lost playoff games. He lost playoff series.

He may be as close to our basketball ideal of perfection as we’ve ever seen, but he’s not perfect. And that’s OK.

It’s also OK that he’s not as gifted as James. That James may catch him in titles. That he will likely pass him in scoring.

It happens in every other sport, too. The NBA doesn’t exist outside evolution. Somebody else always comes along.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor