A Few Links, and Scrambled Thoughts on Michael Jordan

CelticsBlog: Ray-Ray wants extension.Hats off to Mike (Jordan). Red's Army: Week in review.MJ tells it like it is.LOY's Place: Random thoughts 16 days until training camp.Celtics Hub: Where were you when MJ became God?Who's our Bowen? (Zach Lowe on retired Celtics numbers.)Fernsten's Follies: Could KG be our sixth man?There may not be another giant to race past Michael Jordan as the number one player in basketball. Perhaps there will, or perhaps there already has.But like many, including me, have already pointed out, no one will ever have the same success as Michael Jordan did outside of basketball, even now.Although guys like Kobe, LeBron, Derrick Rose, and Kevin Durant all have more apt resources than him, a Michael Jordan commercial always caught your eye. Even if it was just another ad for an MJ $100 shoe, the basketball skits would always get a grip on attention.LeBron's, or KG's famous chalk throw/clap isn't nearly comparable to MJ's tongue flapping wildly around the court. The solemn and subtle pump of Kobe Bryant's fist does not measure up to the spread legs in midair flying toward the rim that were Michael Jordan's. And while Rose and Durant have broken out of their shell quickly and efficiently, though with a loud noise (yes, they've been acknowledged), no signature or trademark could reach MJ's numerous regalements.Some may argue, as I have, that guys like Dr. J and Oscar Robertson possessed more talent than MJ physically. And while that may be the case, the point here is that MJ was one of his own.He left his legacy not as an impersonator of Magic Johnson or Larry Bird, whom he played against, but of himself.If others wish to set off fireworks in the NBA like Jordan did, they must do the same. They must claw their way to the top with their own technique.They must drag themselves to the glorious finish line at their own pace.They must think up a game-changing strategy with their own method.They. Not Michael Jordan.With/at their own... Not Michael Jordan's.Or else, the exhilartion that sticks to a new prodigy will never be the same... As Michael Jordan's was.