Retiring MJ's #

Recently Lebron James has filed paperwork to have his jersey number changed from #23 to #6 in honor of Michael Jordan. He has also asked that any player in the league that is wearing the #23 consider doing the same. He want's MJ's number untouchable, and the league to retire the number.
OK as far as I know the only other league to do something like this was the NHL. They retired Wayne Gretzky's number. Wayne Gretzky was traded from Edmonton to LA. And basically brought hockey to the places it had never been, and with his help the NHL is now scattered all over the Western and Southern United States. Wayne Gretzky also is the all time leader in goals, assists, and points. In fact he has more assists than any other player has points. He held 61 NHL records when he retired, he still holds 60 of those same records. And the record that got beat was for all star game assists. He won the NHL MVP 9 times, included 8 in a row. As far as championships goes, he won 4 stanley cups. So I can understand why the NHL wanted to preserve his history. Without him, the NHL would not be where it is today.
Some people including Lebron James want Michael Jordan to receive the same honor. If you asked 100 Basketball fans who the greatest player of all time is, you might get five or 6 answers. You'd get Jordan, Bird, Johnson, Russell, Chamberlain, or Kareem. And if you talk to a crazy drunk bastard you might even get a Bob Cousy. So are we going to retire all of those numbers? Jordan is 3rd all time in points, 2nd in steals, and 35th in assists, 94th in blocks, and 60th in rebounds. So he isn't the all time leader in any of the five main statistical categories. John Stockton is the all time leader in steals, and assists, are we going to retire his number? Michael Jordan won 6 NBA championships which is a huge number, but is tiny stacked up against Bill Russells 11 NBA championships.
Michael Jordan is the greatest player in NBA history in my opinion, and was as clutch and athlete as there has ever been. But to today's players he's more of a marketing icon than a basketball icon. He was the first to have his own shoes, he is a walking talking trademark. He was the king of endorsements. He should have his jersey retired in the shoe, marketing, and endorsement world, but not in the NBA. The NBA was big before him, and it is still big today. He absolutely played a role in making it what it is today, but not like Gretzky did. So let the bulls retire his number, and if players want to honor him by not wearing #23 that is great, but doing it league wide is crazy.