Funny you asked this question now. I was watching an ESPN Classic special on Kareem. At the end, they showed a game where the Lakers (Wilt and Jerry) were on their historic 32 game winning streak playing the Bucks (Kareem and Big O). Wilt was pretty old but still dominant. Kareem was young and dominant. I would have taken Kareem and Big O but this is a good question.
Was the Big O in his prime then or a bit old as well. If we was close to his prime, yes I would say that was the best combination. You could make a case Jordan is roughly equal to Kareem or Wilt in their primes (you could also make the case Jordan's dominance/greatness was not close to Wilt's). No way any center Jordan played with was from the same planet as Magic, West or Oscar.
I'm with the guy that said "MJ and _______ (fill in blank)" I mean seriously, could anyone compare with MJ and _______ ?
Magic & Kareem edging Wilt and West. Honorable mention to Tiny and Sam Lacy. And my all time favorite duo, Clyde and Willis.
What about Cousy? or Havilcek? Jordan, which BTW is the most underrated player in NBA history because of comments like that..., did it with NO TYPE OF TALENTED CENTER...Longley, Wennington, Cartwright(past his prime), Brian Williams(I refuse to call him by his Allah name...anyway the dude that died...)
Jordan had better talent around him than Hakeem in 93-94 or TD in 02-03, so it was not like Jordan didn't have talent around him even if not in the C position. Micheal Jordan is without a doubt the best guard to ever play basketball. Arguably the best player, though Wilt has the statistical argument, Russell the title argument and Kareem like Jordan has both a handfull of titles plus phenom stats, so it is not a slam dunk there. Like I said you could make a case Jordan was equal to Kareem or Wilt as an individual player, maybe even better. But Magic, Oscar and West were so much better guards than any center Jordan had there is no way any Jordan ____ duo compared to those others mentioned. To say Micheal Jordan and Longley/Cartwright/Dele is better than Kareem-Oscar or Wilt-West, totally overrates the former or underrates the latter, your pick.
had Jordan not retired, I wonder if Houston would have gotten any rings at all Dream was all that, but he would have never gotten the ball with Jordan and Pip eating Kenny's lunch. Hell D Harper almost killed us in 94 Shaq would have had the same prob with a sharp Jordan
