How many teams were in the NBA in those years? The league was just starting out good which is why those teams were so dominant. The pool of players were concentrated. As for the Laker teams in the 80's atleast they had a team that could battle with them...the Celtics...it made the NBA great. Those games meant something to the fans. This right now is just boring.
Again what team in the NBA now has this type of talent to combat the Heat? I'll answer NONE.
Most importantly, the discussion is about LeBron being BETTER than Mike J. It just isn't going to happen. How soon we forget? Do you guys want me to post MJ's stats and not just compare them with Lebron but any wing player you can thing of...he will dwarf them. And no, MJ never had a 3rd option scorer that could hit 30 at will. In the end, it was always on Mike..tough double teams, traps & all. Pippen is the only comparable person and that's because his defense was so great & he could score off the dribble. Pip wasn't that good of a shooter. His best year ever was him averaging like 20 a game only done twice in the Bulls championship runs (without MJ he avr 23).
Mike's leadership MADE Kerr & Armstrong be ready to hit those shots in crunch time. Lebron wimped out on his teammates as a leader. His physical ability is unquestioned...he just isn't the Leader that MJ was. Nobody is. I really believe MJ is crazy. Like out of his mind competitive to be as great as he was at his craft...somethings got to be wrong with you upstairs lol.
Man, I'm sick and tired of old heads saying the late 80s and 90s were so much better than the NBA right now. The reason many people feel that way is because the sport was aided by television, marketing and promotion of star players and teams. Prior to that the NBA Finals were on tape delay.
And a lot folks became enamored with the circus because it was the first time many of the fans were exposed to that collaboration. It was special because it was new.
I thought the 90s was a great era in NBA history. Being a Bulls fan for me was great because I got to see my favorite team win six championships.
But I can also put it in perspective as well. Nothing will be better than the old thing or era because whatever the new thing is can't match the emotions folks had back in the day. Everything else afterwards doesn't seem to live up to or match it. It was exciting back then because it was really the first time we experienced the hype and build up surrounding those games, teams and players. The new car smells fades over time.
Now that we can see NBA games any time we want, read and watch different views about the league 24/7/365 on TV and the web, it's not special anymore. It's old hat now. It's not exciting to us because we've nearly seen and experienced it all.
I wonder if M.J. paying some of ya'll bills for him to be defended this hard. Jordan was the best player I've ever seen. But it is not a crime or even far fetched to say another cat might one day be better than him. Get this. Magic Johnson played in the NBA Finals nine times in 12 years by the age of 31 (winning three league MVPs and three NBA Finals MVPs).
Jordan ain't do that. In fact, he didn't make the Finals the first time until he turned 27. But you would be hard pressed to find a lot of people who believe Magic is better than Jordan.
Now nobody is the leader Michael Jordan was? Didn't Bill Russell win 11 championships with one being as a player/coach? So that blows that argument out of the water.
The only cat right now who ain't better than Jordan is Jordan. That is how much of a deity he has become because he won all the championships by himself and willed average players to hit wide open game-winning shots in the postseason. Never mind he played with two other HOF players, a nine-time European player of the year, one of the great three-point shooters of all-time and a head coach who ended up winning 11 NBA championships.
