Michael Jordan didn’t really kill more people than the plague, but Charles Barkley seems to believe his unattainable legacy killed more than a few NBA careers.
Barkley joined The Dan Patrick Show Friday morning to discuss his coverage of the NCAA Tournament for CBS. And before their 12-minute conversation about the ongoing feud between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith, they did sneak in just enough college basketball talk to touch on Duke’s Cooper Flagg.
“Who do you see when you look at Cooper Flagg?” Patrick asked.
“I see Cooper Flagg,” Barkley answered. “I see he’s a terrific young player, he looks amazing on television, can’t wait to see him in the NBA. I hate doing that. I hate when guys on television try to compare. First of all, to say he’s already somebody in the NBA is being unfair to that person in the NBA.”
“I think we do a disservice to a lot of these guys,” Barkley continued. “Like, I think Michael Jordan has killed more people than the plague. You know, ‘this guy is the next Michael Jordan,’ you don’t turn out to be Michael Jordan.”
There’s something to be said for just letting college athletes or prospects in any sport develop without having to live up to the hype of meeting the legacy of an already successful professional. However, comparisons are the best way of letting casual fans know about a player’s skill set. And yes, it’s fun and attention-grabbing to come up with an analogy or draw a parallel from one prospect to a pro. The only thing more attention-grabbing than saying someone is “the next Jordan” is saying “Jordan has killed more people than the plague.”
How many players have really had their careers killed or stunted because they were dubbed the next Jordan? The list probably isn’t as long as Barkley implied.
Regardless of whether Flagg gets compared to Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird, Jayson Tatum, or Kevin Garnett, he will be entering the NBA with exorbitant expectations to meet.