Did Michael Jordan change the NBA forever?

He changed the style of the NBA...but it wasn't a permanent change and it's already evolved into a somewhat different game by now.

You're right that the emphasis of the game was on talented bigs who could play both stellar offense and intimidating defense before Jordan...and that he did revolutionize the game in a sense. With Jordan, the new limelight position on the floor was shooting guard - the athletic scoring SG that is. Kobe's kept the torch on the SG position for a while...but it's clearly a point guard's league now. Without any overly dominant centers (with the exception of Dwight Howard and POSSIBLY Andrew Bynum), you can't just throw the ball in to them and watch them go to work. You NEED an athletic point guard who can do it all: shoot the outside ball, drive and dribble penetrate to create opportunities, and pass to the open man.

Oh yeah, I'm honestly a little confused about Roy Hibbert...but Marc Gasol was to be expected. It's a great selection. I mean he's not even close to Shaq or Olajuwon for example...but those are ALL-TIME greats...Hall of Fame centers. Gasol's developed an impressive resume over the course of last season's playoff run to now...he's a pretty efficient scorer, has a decent mid-range jumper, and rebounds the ball very well. Maybe most intriguing of all is his knack for good ball movement and assisting, which is quite uncharacteristic of big men.

Yes, but not in the way that you are mentioning. Magic & Bird took Center Stage b4 Jordan did. And there were several players who did well who weren't Centers even if they didn't achieve quite as much as Michael Jordan did.

Michael Jordan changed the game when it came to endorsements & how much a player is going to be paid. And how much one Super Star impacts a Team. Sure you can mention Wilt Chamberlain. But even in Wilt's day it was still more of a Team Game & Wilt only Won 2 NBA Championships after being in the Finals almost every year. So the message was at the end of the day the Team always wins. When Jordan came along that changed because he more than any other player did it without other players that were Super Star Caliber players. Sure you can mention Pippen & Rodman. 2 Hall of Famers but they still weren't Super Stars. And before Jordan came along you had to have like 4 Future Hall of Famers on your Team to even be considered to have a shot at it.

The Jordan years were an aberration. Look what happened as soon as he retired. The bigs reasserted themselves, with Shaq and Duncan basically swapping the championship trophy between the two of them for next 9 years. (except for that one trip the trophy made to Detroit, which had some pretty good big men of its own.)

While that was going on, though, the NBA was declining in popularity. The league decided that the public wanted to see more scoring and more high-flying plays, like MJ did. So the rules were changed, referees were told to be much more strict about hard fouls, and the front office started fining and suspending players for doing things what would have hardly even merited a whistle 20 years ago. As a result you see guys like Tony Parker fearlessly driving the lane and getting easy buckets, because they know the opposing teams big men don't dare breathe on them, much less send them to the floor with a hard foul.

The big man game in basketball has changed in a big big way, coaches are to blame in this. Coaches wants to win so if they got a shot at beating a team with 4 guards starting and 1 big man, the big man is in there for only defense. Why u think Dwight howard wants out of orlando. Because the entire team shoots three's, even glen davis and he 6 7.

Jordan dominated because it was rigged.

He and the mid90s Bulls got away with murder out there.

The Bulls first won with Bill Cartwright and Horace Grant, that was legit.

Players are poorly developed now, all face-up Jordan wannabees.

The pre-3 Point Era was center-based, and more team-oriented.

But, ultimately, it was David Stern who made all this happen, not Jordan.

There were other shooting guards before MJ.

The biggest change he made on the NBA was the way that he personally marketed himself. Now players main priority is self marketing, instead of basketball. Kind of ruined the game.

Yes

Yes without him there will be no kobe or lebron or people in today's nba using his moves

Michael Jordan was hardly a basket-ball player. He just looked pretty and brought in a whole lot of cash from his movies and promotions. When it came to actual basketball, he had little if any skill.

He changed basketball because he is what turned it from a sport to a comedy and he is who removed the real legacy of the game.