113 sats \ 3 replies \ @elvismercury 21 May \ parent \ on: The "Face of the NBA" Race is On Stacker_Sports
I've been thinking about this too; it's an interesting exercise. My take:
Jordan: taller, better athlete, more insanely competitive, better at getting to the basket, more terror-inducing in opponents and in teammates.
Edwards: better handle, better shot, better at inspiring teammates through hope and desire.
I don't know how Jordan was at 23 years old, but I think people are giving Edwards too much favoritism on this one: it should be less about what they're doing at a given age, and more about how many years of NBA experience they have. Edwards has been in training in the league for longer at the same age. That matters.
The most interesting thing to me about AE is that he seems in the same fearlessness ballpark as MJ (you actually believe him when he says he's looking forward to game 7 on the road as a fun challenge). The second most interesting thing is the leadership style: hope, desire, optimism vs fear.
Having been a leader, and having operated under leaders of different stripes in different contexts, the importance of this strikes me in a way it never would have before. It's a tectonic effect and I'm curious to see how it plays out over time, as AE evolves and his circumstances change.
The leadership differences are fascinating and I hadn't really thought about it. I would expect Ant's style to be more stable, especially with modern players, over the long run.
The flip side might be that someone like KAT will be in situations where his dumb decisions could cost them a title, because Ant is more inclusive and uplifting, whereas Jordan would have already crushed him or driven him off.
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I can see that -- it's one of the most interesting parts of it, I think. In my mind, I think of the leadership questions as: how much can you get out of the people around you? And the Ant-style method seems to be that, whoever's around, you squeeze some more out of them. But maybe that allows people to stick around who otherwise wouldn't be able to take the heat?
There's no universally optimal strategy, of course. My guess is that, in most situations, including the modern NBA, the "high standards + leading by example + encouragement / support" is generally superior to "high standards + leading by example + terror / shame".
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I agree, but I want to add one more wrinkle to it.
If there are enough available teammates who share the more psychotic Jordan mentality, such that the talent balances out, then their mutual fear of being the weak link could propel them to truly absurd heights.
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