[chron]No Bull? Rockets say they still would have won like Mike

Yeah. Something like MJ's second game back in '95 he dropped 50+ on the Knicks. Not bad for someone who is supposed to be rusty and "just getting his legs back."

I'm not about to deny his greatness, but the man got beat, plain and simple, after having half a freaking season in which to get in game shape. He'd just wrapped up trying to be a professional baseball player, not a professional pie-eater who wanted to give it one last shot. Stop with the excuses. Michael Jordan was still in his prime and was in DAMN good shape, and he LOST.

 

What a lot of people don't realize is that Jordan's talent isn't what made him great. Honestly, if you just take basketball skill/talent and compare swingmen like Dominique, Magic, Kobe, Jordan, Lebron, and McGrady...they all have strengths and weaknesses.

To be quite frank, as much as I dislike him, I actually believe that Kobe has the same skill and talent level that Jordan had...if not more.

Jordan transcended into new levels of greatness because of two things:
- The system in which he played
- His sheer desire to win and be better than everyone else

If he had lacked either one of them, nobody would be talking about Jordan as the greatest ever.

Without a good system and teammates, you're left with the Kevin Garnetts of the league...guys who want more than anything to win but just can't. Stick an in-prime Jordan on our current squad without Yao, and how well would you expect our team to do?

Without his competitive fire, those Bulls team wouldn't have gone anywhere either. Put any one of the elite swingmen of today on those stacked Bulls teams, and I highly doubt they would've won three straight titles (two separate times).

He was VERY physically talented yes...but so were a number of other players. Bottom line is, his drive to win and the teams he played on meshed together perfectly and created a dominating team in the 90s.

 

Like I said its all about situation.

Yes I saw the Bulls w/o MJ lose a tough series against the Knicks and lose just 2 less games after MJ went to baseball.

Surely after losing the G.O.AT. that team would have fallen off more than just 2 games and a Semi- Finals appearance. If not surely after they get him back for the next season even if just a 1/2 season they should have ran away with the title that wasn't the case. He ran into the best big man his team ever faced. You think Dream (way better than Shaq at the time) would have gotten wiped off the floor by MJ??? No way.

MJ might be the greatest I'm just saying people are in love with him way to much to the point where he is overrated. If I'm starting a team with any player in the history of the game I might pick Jordan but theres probaly 3-4 other players I'd think about picking. Similar to the way people I'd pick Joe Montana in football but theres probaly 3-4 players I'd think about taking, I'd take barry bonds in baseball but again theres 3-4 players I'd think about taking.

That's why I'm saying hes overrated he's not by far the #1 player IMO. He was in a perfect situation. It's really a shame this should be sports biggest/funnest debate. But among average joes they think your an idiot if you think the Rockets could hang with those Bulls.

 

I knew MJ before Rodman, but Rodman is the guy who attracted me to NBA. I actually bought his book "Just do it" before MJ's "For the love of the game".

 

Bulls? Nah. We'd have beaten them in those days (even if Jorda was playing).

Now, the Seattle Supersonics, on the other hand.....

 

I always hate how people also bring up that we didn't play the Sonics during our championship years.

 

The reason I know Jordan was able to drop 50+ against the knicks and was ready for the playoffs that year was because he was practicing with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck against the MONSTARS....Jordan couldn't be stopped by the Monstars there is no way the Rockets could of beat him

 

Jordan was healthy and back. 55 point games, buzzer beaters you name it. Funny people say "he's back!" when its all good, but the Bulls lose and Michael is still rusty--as if they could ever tarnish his legacy.

Let's face it--Jordan's Bulls got beaten by teams with dominant centres. Smits and Ewing--they could handle. Dream and Shaq? not in a seven game series.

Olajuwon is the greatest centre ever, and i'm tired of him being forgotten, ignored and unacknowledged the way he is.

Shaq says Hakeem's the greatest.

Robert Horry, who has played with Hakeem, Shaq and Duncan says Hakeem was the best out of the three.

Jordan himself says his Bulls couldn't have beaten the Rockets because they had no answer for dream.

Yet here we are, having to hear Shaq named constantly as an "immortal" (along with Russel,Wilt and Jabbar). We have to see Hakeem constantly outranked by less talented centres anytime there is a list created. It really bugs the hell out of me.

Give the man some damn respect.

 

"I was bear-hugged, not picked,"
- Houston's Clyde Drexler...He fought desperately to get past Malone and back to cover Stockton.

 

How boring of a discussion! Where's the flood of free registrees coming to Mike's defense, the guys who own every Air Jordan, the ones who demand that #23 be retired leaguewide, because clearly, Jordan had as much impact as Jackie Robinson in baseball, or dominated the league as amazingly as Gretzky (the man has more assists than any other player has assists+goals!).

Where are the ravenous fanboys who say the two Houston Championships should be marked with an asterisk, because the best player on the planet was playing baseball? That the regular season matchup didn't mean a thing, because Jordan always "found a way to win" in the playoffs, ignoring the fact that 1. The best player on the planet was playing in Houston, and 2. Houston had the true will to win during those two years.

Debates are no fun when everyone agrees! Where's the flaming, the controversy, the stubborness and recalcitrance rivaling a creationist (excuse me, intelligent design supporter) enrolling in Evolutionary Biology 300?

Come on disciples of Jordan! We need a lively, 30 page debate to take our mind off losing/winning/tanking/marrying.

 

great post man.. I never knew that some people actually think the same way I do.. I think that MJ is not the best of all time.. in my eyes: it's Hakeem... because he won the 1st championship (1994) pretty much by himself.. (he just had desent role players)... in the all time best.. you cant say that MJ is better than Magic, Kareem, Wilt, Oscar...

 

Well, I guess you're the flood.

Jordan was truly amazing, but if Larry Bird could have had a injury free career, I think he would be ranked right there with MJ. When Bird was healthy, he refused to let you beat him. The year the Rockets played in the Finals, in '86, Bird had as good a season as anyone ever has, especially if you watched him play and got to appreciate all the myriad ways he made his team better. That the Rocks took them to 6 games says all you need to know about just how good that young Rockets team was. In my opinion, the '85-'86 Celtics may have been the greatest team in NBA history.

Jordan, the Bulls, and our two championship teams? We would have beaten them.



(haven't we had this discussion about 200 times??)

 

couldn't agree more with u

 

The 93 Rox, inferior to the 94 n' 95 Rox, went to game 7, overtime in Seattle and only didn't win it because of bogus hometown calls on the Rox in the last few minutes of regulation (one of which fouled Hakeem out of the game) - and still were v-max 3 away from winning the series.

Of course, they would not have to play game 7 in Seattle (where the home team won every game that series) if the bullsh-t refs hadn't given Robinson and the Sperms a tip-in that occurred a full second AFTER the final buzzer in the last game of the regular season - but that's another (pre-replay) matter.

So if the 93 Rox can play the Sonics nearly dead even in the playoffs - I don't think it's cut and dried the 94 or 95 rocks woudn't have been able to beat them. Obviously the sonics gave them trouble - but those two teams were special - they just wouldn't die (probably due in no small part to the disappointment of 93). The same hunger wasn't there in 96.

 

Of course those MONSTARS had the ability of Charles Barkley, Mugsy Bogues, Larry Johnson and Shawn Bradley. There's no way the Rox lose to a team made up of those guys.

 

while it's true the rockets didnt beat the sonics during the championship years, they did take them to 7 games in the west semis the year before they won the 1st championship....i think they would've beat them during the championship years and they did beat them in the west semis in 1997

 

I don't necessarily disagree with the rest of your argument, but the Pippen led Bulls won 55 games in '94 and 47 in '95. Nothing to sneeze at. Compare that to our record without Tmac, and it's obvious that the Bulls were a damn talented team. They advanced in the playoffs without Jordan. You gotta be pretty good to do that.