RGM GOAT Debate Thread (Part 3)

[Himothy Duncan]

The guy who won during an expansion heavy period dominated by slow bigs and whose main perimeter competition were Reggie Miller and Jeff Hornack.

As oppose to the guy who played in a horrifically bad eastern conference getting fodder like DeMar DeRozan in the ECF

The East was getting called weak even during Jordan’s time, and there were still super elite perimeter players waiting for Bron in the Finals.

Read on Twitter

?s=12&t=N8KS3iAE6xP2AR5_6BL8mw

[cupcakesnake]

The guy who won during an expansion heavy period dominated by slow bigs and whose main perimeter competition were Reggie Miller and Jeff Hornack.

As oppose to the guy who played in a horrifically bad eastern conference getting fodder like DeMar DeRozan in the ECF

The East was getting called weak even during Jordan’s time, and there were still super elite perimeter players waiting for Bron in the Finals.

Read on Twitter

?s=12&t=N8KS3iAE6xP2AR5_6BL8mw

The East was monstrously strong at the beginning of MJ's career. Pistons, Celtics, Sixers, and Bucks were all stacked, and people called the West the weaker conference. Those were all teams of the 80s, and they all faded on slightly different timelines. The Pistons won the championship in 1990, but the other 80s teams were some kind of done. No more Dr. J or Moses in Phili, Bird playing on a broken back in Boston, no more Moncrief/Marques/Lanier in Milwaukee.

So the 90s East is a completely new generation of teams. The Bulls first championship is them kind of eating up the remains of the last generation, easily defeating the corpses of Detroit, Phili, and Magic's Lakers. New York doesn't become a real contender until 1993, the end of the Bulls first 3-peat. The Cavs are super legit for most of the first 3-peat. MJ retires, and that's when Shaq and Penny make the Magic a contender. The Hawks are up and down. Eventually the Reggie Miller Pacers become legit, and Pat Riley makes a bruising team in Miami.

But during most of the Chicago dynasty, the best opponents are all in the West. Stockton/Malone Jazz, David Robinson Spurs, Hakeem Rockets, Barkley Suns, Payton/Kemp Pacers, Drexler Blazers.

I don't think the East was quite as sad as it was sometimes during the Lebron-era. Some of the would-be Lebron challengers fell apart before they really got going (Derrick Rose injury in Chicago, Paul George injury in Indiana + weird Roy Hibber mental meltdown).

[lessthanjake]

As oppose to the guy who played in a horrifically bad eastern conference getting fodder like DeMar DeRozan in the ECF

The East was getting called weak even during Jordan’s time, and there were still super elite perimeter players waiting for Bron in the Finals.

Read on Twitter

?s=12&t=N8KS3iAE6xP2AR5_6BL8mw

The East was monstrously strong at the beginning of MJ's career. Pistons, Celtics, Sixers, and Bucks were all stacked, and people called the West the weaker conference. Those were all teams of the 80s, and they all faded on slightly different timelines. The Pistons won the championship in 1990, but the other 80s teams were some kind of done. No more Dr. J or Moses in Phili, Bird playing on a broken back in Boston, no more Moncrief/Marques/Lanier in Milwaukee.

So the 90s East is a completely new generation of teams. The Bulls first championship is them kind of eating up the remains of the last generation, easily defeating the corpses of Detroit, Phili, and Magic's Lakers. New York doesn't become a real contender until 1993, the end of the Bulls first 3-peat. The Cavs are super legit for most of the first 3-peat. MJ retires, and that's when Shaq and Penny make the Magic a contender. The Hawks are up and down. Eventually the Reggie Miller Pacers become legit, and Pat Riley makes a bruising team in Miami.

But during most of the Chicago dynasty, the best opponents are all in the West. Stockton/Malone Jazz, David Robinson Spurs, Hakeem Rockets, Barkley Suns, Payton/Kemp Pacers, Drexler Blazers.

I don't think the East was quite as sad as it was sometimes during the Lebron-era. Some of the would-be Lebron challengers fell apart before they really got going (Derrick Rose injury in Chicago, Paul George injury in Indiana + weird Roy Hibber mental meltdown).

I think a pretty simple way to generally assess how “weak” a conference is for purposes of getting through the conference in the playoffs is to look at how many 5+ SRS teams there are in the conference, and then add any team that is below that threshold but is the defending champion with the same core and actually won at least one playoff series (since that’s typically a very good team that’s just coasting in the regular season), and any team that actually won the title that year. This can be a bit overinclusive and underinclusive, but it’s going to generally capture things.

Here’s what we come up with under that threshold for Jordan’s years. If the Bulls were one of the teams that were counted, I note that in parenthesis.

1985

East: 2
West: 1

1986

East: 2
West: 1

1987

East: 2
West: 2

1988

East: 2
West: 1

1989

East: 3
West: 2

1990

East: 1
West: 3

1991

East: 3 (2 without Bulls)
West: 3

1992

East: 2 (1 without Bulls)
West: 3

1993

East: 3 (2 without Bulls)
West: 2

1994

East: 1
West: 3

1995

East: 1
West: 4

1996

East: 2 (1 without Bulls)
West: 4

1997

East: 4 (3 without Bulls)
West: 2

1998

East: 3 (2 without Bulls)
West: 3

This method exemplifies a lot of what you said. The East was stronger in the 1980s. The East was then a bit weaker in the first few years of the 1990s. It was good again in 1993—in large part because the Knicks had really arrived. With Jordan leaving the East, the conference was weak in 1994 and 1995, and it stayed a bit weaker in 1996. However, on balance, the conferences were pretty equal overall in the second-three-peat years. There were some shifts during Jordan’s career, so there were years where the East was a bit squishy (particularly the very early 1990s), but overall the two conferences were about equal in his years.

Of course, if you just ignore the Bulls being in the East, then the West was stronger in most of the Bulls title years, but that’s not really a fair way to look at conference strength. And, notably, the Bulls never had a single year where there was no other team in the Eastern Conference that had a 5+ SRS. There was always at least one other team in the East that had a really good season!

Let’s do the same for LeBron’s years in the East.

2004

East: 1
West: 3

2005

East: 1
West: 3

2006

East: 1
West: 3

2007

East: 0
West: 4

2008

East: 2
West: 5

2009

East: 3 (2 without Cavs)
West: 2

2010

East: 2 (1 without Cavs)
West: 3

2011

East: 2 (1 without Heat)
West: 3

2012

East: 2 (1 without Heat)
West: 2

2013

East: 1 (0 without Heat)
West: 4

2014

East: 1 (0 without Heat)
West: 5

2015

East: 0
West: 3

2016

East: 1 (0 without Cavs)
West: 3

2017

East: 1 (0 without Cavs)
West: 3

2018

East: 1
West: 2

This tells a very different story. The East was definitely far weaker than the West for the first four years of LeBron’s career. There really were almost no remotely good teams in the East that entire time. They were also weaker than the West in 2008, but at least they were starting to have good teams. From 2009-2011, the East actually was not weaker than the West. That was theoretically true in 2012 as well, but the 7.43 SRS Bulls had their best player go out injured, so that year ended up being the turning point where we entered another era where the West was incredibly weak. And that basically stayed the case the rest of the time LeBron was in the conference.

I noted earlier that Jordan never had a year where there wasn’t another 5+ SRS team in the Eastern Conference. LeBron had 6 of those years.

I also note that that 2009-2011 time period where the Eastern Conference wasn’t actually weak corresponds with the time period of LeBron’s career that was most disappointing from the perspective of converting regular season success to playoff success. That’s not a coincidence IMO. Of course, one of those years they did actually get through the East, but it’s just tougher to get through an entire playoff run where you need to beat multiple good opponents to win the title.

[HiDef]

IMO the main thing keeping this debate interesting is the question whether LBJ was better than Jordan at his absolute peak. IMO the answer is yes. LeBron's peak was his 2nd Cavs stint and particularly the 2016 Finals. Jordan never faced anything like the Warriors in his winning era.

Even though the reason is obvious, it's still weird how little we talk about the fact that the 2nd and 3rd greatest players of LeBron's era joined forces to beat him. Obvious because he was the first one to make a "superteam," but still.

Discrediting LeBron's career compared to Jordan is easy, but this is still a real debate because of how good LeBron was and how evident it is to people who watched him.

My other main argument for LeBron is zone defense. For someone who was definitely not watching basketball during the 90's, it's just funny to me. They actually had rules preventing defenders from standing in empty space. Jordan's triangle offense was a flowchart where he reads a hard double and shoots over it or makes the read. In hindsight, it's just absolutely pathetic and contributes a lot to the "weaker era" argument. Especially given LBJ's status as an ATG passer.

I'm still probably a Jordan believer, but the longer time goes on, the more unlikely it is anyone will match Jordan's legacy. Because he's the GOAT, or because the league has gotten so much more competitive? tough to say. I probably would've sided with LeBron if I never saw Kawhi Leonard in his prime.

Anyways, even for me, Jordan is the GOAT. Anyone who doesn't have LeBron as #2 is making **** up.

[bledredwine]

The guy who won during an expansion heavy period dominated by slow bigs and whose main perimeter competition were Reggie Miller and Jeff Hornack.

As oppose to the guy who played in a horrifically bad eastern conference getting fodder like DeMar DeRozan in the ECF

The East was getting called weak even during Jordan’s time, and there were still super elite perimeter players waiting for Bron in the Finals.

Read on Twitter

?s=12&t=N8KS3iAE6xP2AR5_6BL8mw

Lebron had more star players on his heat squad than the entire eastern playoff conference combined.

It’s not even close in terms of strength of the 90s eastern conference to the leastern conference bron faced. Ewing Knicks, Miller Pacers, Shaq Penny Magic, Tim Hardaway Alonzo Heat Cavs Hornets with Larry Johnson Alonzo AND Glenn Rice? Come on man.

Can you name one elite center on both ends Lebron faced in the eastern conference? I can- Dwight.

[bledredwine]

IMO the main thing keeping this debate interesting is the question whether LBJ was better than Jordan at his absolute peak. IMO the answer is yes. LeBron's peak was his 2nd Cavs stint and particularly the 2016 Finals. Jordan never faced anything like the Warriors in his winning era.

Even though the reason is obvious, it's still weird how little we talk about the fact that the 2nd and 3rd greatest players of LeBron's era joined forces to beat him. Obvious because he was the first one to make a "superteam," but still.

Discrediting LeBron's career compared to Jordan is easy, but this is still a real debate because of how good LeBron was and how evident it is to people who watched him.

My other main argument for LeBron is zone defense. For someone who was definitely not watching basketball during the 90's, it's just funny to me. They actually had rules preventing defenders from standing in empty space. Jordan's triangle offense was a flowchart where he reads a hard double and shoots over it or makes the read. In hindsight, it's just absolutely pathetic and contributes a lot to the "weaker era" argument. Especially given LBJ's status as an ATG passer.

I'm still probably a Jordan believer, but the longer time goes on, the more unlikely it is anyone will match Jordan's legacy. Because he's the GOAT, or because the league has gotten so much more competitive? tough to say. I probably would've sided with LeBron if I never saw Kawhi Leonard in his prime.

Anyways, even for me, Jordan is the GOAT. Anyone who doesn't have LeBron as #2 is making **** up.

Watch on YouTube

There was also a game against a Riley squad where he faced zone and in the interview afterwards he stated “then they went into zone and it became real easy”. Zone was no problem for jordan as he went off both games. To think that would pose him problems over being doubled constantly and having bigs actually waiting to block him at the rim from Mutumbo, to Hakeem, D Rob, etc… is just wild.

I have probably heard about forty players and even coaches state he’d score far more and have yet to hear one player or coach say he’d score less post rule changes and with the space today, Luka also stating how easy the defensive three second rule makes it for him to get an extra “ten easy” (interview with reddick)

At his peak, Jordan had come off of a three peat
first in 91 averaging 32 and 11.4 on high efficiency including from three,
in 92 the three point shrug series against the blazers setting record for points in a half and averaging 36 ppg,
then 93 averaging the finals record 41 ppg alongside 9 boards low TOs on absurd efficiency.

Lebron’s never put together a stretch like that, whatever his peak may be considered. Then Jordan retired and stated he “felt there are no challenges left”

[Djoker]

Hey y'all I made a pretty nice Jordan thread here.

Lots of ON-OFF stats that show his offensive dominance.

[Himothy Duncan]

As oppose to the guy who played in a horrifically bad eastern conference getting fodder like DeMar DeRozan in the ECF

The East was getting called weak even during Jordan’s time, and there were still super elite perimeter players waiting for Bron in the Finals.

Read on Twitter

?s=12&t=N8KS3iAE6xP2AR5_6BL8mw

Lebron had more star players on his heat squad than the entire eastern playoff conference combined.

It’s not even close in terms of strength of the 90s eastern conference to the leastern conference bron faced. Ewing Knicks, Miller Pacers, Shaq Penny Magic, Tim Hardaway Alonzo Heat Cavs Hornets with Larry Johnson Alonzo AND Glenn Rice? Come on man.

Can you name one elite center on both ends Lebron faced in the eastern conference? I can- Dwight.

He doesn’t match up with centers, so who cares? Penny got injured before he could get going and become a legit all-time great. Jordan didn’t have great competition at PG/SG/SF compared to LeBron.

[HiDef]

snip

snip

slicing up a zone defense vs. the 20 years of defensive scheming that followed the end of illegal defense are not the same thing.

Agreed that LeBron never had a run like Jordan's prime. Disagree that he never matched that level at his peak. Greatest vs. Best.

[Showtime 80]

snip

snip

slicing up a zone defense vs. the 20 years of defensive scheming that followed the end of illegal defense are not the same thing.

Agreed that LeBron never had a run like Jordan's prime. Disagree that he never matched that level at his peak. Greatest vs. Best.

Not this zone bs again

Lesser efficient perimeter players like Kobe, T-Mac, Carter, Iverson, Kidd and Ray Allen to name a few never had a problem with the NBA’s “pseudo zone” which artificially clears the paint with the 3 second defensive rule coupled with the complete banning of hand checking after 2005.

Zone is a lazy defense like Jerry Tarkanian use to call it which is easily defeated by back door cuts, quick passing, movement without the ball and timely outside shooting that’s why it’s an alternative rather than the norm even in college and man to man remains the standard.

MJ from 91-98 was one of the greatest off the ball players with one of the deadliest mid range games ever playing in the triangle a system designed to beat zones actually with quick passing and movement. No defense in history was stopping him and the Bulls during that period specially not today’s soft as tissue paper resistance and certainly none of the LeBron-centric teams in Miami, Cleveland or LA.

Anyway MJ shot 54% against real college style zones with a suspect jumper during his NC stint and that’s without a 3 point line to space the floor and teams parking 2 to 3 bigs in the paint to close off drives. People forget before the AAU abomination taking hold of the American players development, guys spent 3-4 years in college learning the game at a fundamental level and that includes knowing how to attack any type of defense.

Quick question who is LeBron in the 80’s-90’s going up against packed in defenses anchored by the greatest generation of centers without a team of floor spacers coupled with a suspect jump shot/lukewarm FT shooting?

[bledredwine]

Yeah, the zone argument is another excuse. Zone .... was easy for Jordan. Yes, he faced zone. It was easy for Kobe.
And anyone who actually believes zone would have given him trouble don't know much about his game, skillset or the defenses
he actually faced and had no problem putting up 50 or 60 on. Just look at the first several seasons of his playoffs stats… 29 rookie year, 43, 37, 36 ppg etc… consistently around forty per game every year, dominating with all twos and bigs in the lane.

Watch on YouTube

It doesn't take much to figure out that if A>B and B>C that A>C


Difference between Jordan, then both Kobe AND Lebron is nearly 75% of his games (I believe 73?) came against winning teams.

Heck, his 60 point games?

Cavs
Hawks
Boston (69 win team, this was IN the playoffs (63 points, a record in the playoffs))
Badboy Pistons
Magic
Rockets

Averaged 41 in the finals.

The 59 against the Badboy pistons comes to mind, where Daly enforced the Jordan rules because he was "sick of getting embarrassed"

Yeah, he wouldn't have had any issues. He would have scored significantly more with this spacing, as basically every player any era whom was asked the question of MJ in the modern game has said.

I'll listen to all of the pros and coaches over this forum when it comes to that question. They actually understand what it's like to play defense and face it.

[HiDef]

Jordan was quoted in 2001 as saying he wouldn't have had the same career if not for illegal defense. Whether you take him at face value on that is your own prerogative.

[ScrantonBulls]

Jordan was quoted in 2001 as saying he wouldn't have had the same career if not for illegal defense. Whether you take him at face value on that is your own prerogative.

Nah. Instead he'll take the single quote from Jordan claiming a team played zone against him for one game and deduce from that that MJ would destroy zone defense

[Jamaaliver]

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

[Showtime 80]

Jordan was quoted in 2001 as saying he wouldn't have had the same career if not for illegal defense. Whether you take him at face value on that is your own prerogative.

Nah. Instead he'll take the single quote from Jordan claiming a team played zone against him for one game and deduce from that that MJ would destroy zone defense

Or let’s just take his last season at 39 y/o surrounded by a crap team in 2003 two years after the “pseudo zone” was put in and before the NBA removed hand checking entirely in 2005:

Played 82 games
37 MP (second lowest of career)
20 ppg at 45% taking only 18 shots (lowest of career) and going to the line only 4 times (also lowest in his career)
6 rbs
4 asst
2 stl
1 blk

Now who in their right mind would doubt a prime Jordan gets his same 30+ ppg shooting above 50% in 2003 playing his usual 40+ minutes, shooting 22-23 times and going to the line his usual 8-10 times?

Again inferior perimeter players who didn’t have MJ’s ability, Kobe being the main one, had their most successful seasons after the “pseudo zone” was instituted in 2002 (don’t even get me started on guys like Russell Westbrick). Heck, Steve Nash, a bench player/borderline all star turned into a two time MVP ayer the rule changes but yeah MJ would’ve gotten struggle

Zone defense only works somewhat against bricklayers without go to moves like LeBron was during the 2011 Finals.

[bledredwine]

Jordan was quoted in 2001 as saying he wouldn't have had the same career if not for illegal defense. Whether you take him at face value on that is your own prerogative.

Nah. Instead he'll take the single quote from Jordan claiming a team played zone against him for one game and deduce from that that MJ would destroy zone defense

All you do is hang on to other posters’ posts and act like what they said proves everything.

Well, here’s the education on this matter, if you care to learn about it. MJ faced plenty of zones and dominated.

https://nobodytouchesjordan.blogspot.com/2014/09/section-4-jordan-never-faced-zone-myth.html?m=1

Keep in mind that Jordan played during a time without three second violation. That changes everything, including the context behind his quote. Three sec and court opening up= easy inside buckets, as euro stars keep mentioning.

If anything, Jordan in today’s game would be hilarious. We’ve heard both current and past players/coaches state he’d average more and not one single person saying less. And not a single cross era dominated in the 90s with the prior rules.

As I’ve mentioned before, nearly every lebron argument falls into two categories. 1- longevity. 2- excuses.
And this falls into category two: excuses

[ScrantonBulls]

Jordan was quoted in 2001 as saying he wouldn't have had the same career if not for illegal defense. Whether you take him at face value on that is your own prerogative.

Nah. Instead he'll take the single quote from Jordan claiming a team played zone against him for one game and deduce from that that MJ would destroy zone defense

All you do is hang on to other posters’ posts and act like what they said proves everything.

Well, here’s the education on this matter, if you care to learn about it. MJ faced plenty of zones and dominated.

https://nobodytouchesjordan.blogspot.com/2014/09/section-4-jordan-never-faced-zone-myth.html?m=1

Keep in mind that Jordan played during a time without three second violation. That changes everything, including the context behind his quote. Three sec and court opening up= easy inside buckets, as euro stars keep mentioning.

If anything, Jordan in today’s game would be hilarious. We’ve heard both current and past players/coaches state he’d average more and not one single person saying less. And not a single cross era dominated in the 90s with the prior rules.

As I’ve mentioned before, nearly every lebron argument falls into two categories. 1- longevity. 2- excuses.
And this falls into category two: excuses

Lmao, this has to be your blog. Based on the name "Nobody Touches Jordan" and the homeristic claims that are in it. The article claims MJ was an MVP candidate in 2001-02 with his robust 46.8% TS% Yeah Jordan sure tore up zone defense with his "efficient" statline this year.

"Hey guyz look at this article from www.JordanIsGod.com/LeBronIsStupid. Not sure who wrote the article, but they appear to be a genius. Anyway, it says Jordan was an MVP candidate in 2001-02. Therefore he destroyed zone defense."

Gotta love the insecurity people have about MJs legacy. There's a blog dedicated to convincing everybody how great he is.

[DOT]

Nah. Instead he'll take the single quote from Jordan claiming a team played zone against him for one game and deduce from that that MJ would destroy zone defense

All you do is hang on to other posters’ posts and act like what they said proves everything.

Well, here’s the education on this matter, if you care to learn about it. MJ faced plenty of zones and dominated.

https://nobodytouchesjordan.blogspot.com/2014/09/section-4-jordan-never-faced-zone-myth.html?m=1

Keep in mind that Jordan played during a time without three second violation. That changes everything, including the context behind his quote. Three sec and court opening up= easy inside buckets, as euro stars keep mentioning.

If anything, Jordan in today’s game would be hilarious. We’ve heard both current and past players/coaches state he’d average more and not one single person saying less. And not a single cross era dominated in the 90s with the prior rules.

As I’ve mentioned before, nearly every lebron argument falls into two categories. 1- longevity. 2- excuses.
And this falls into category two: excuses

Lmao, this has to be your blog. Based on the name "Nobody Touches Jordan" and the homeristic claims that are in it. The article claims MJ was an MVP candidate in 2001-02 with his robust 46.8% TS% Yeah Jordan sure tore up zone defense with his "efficient" statline this year.

"Hey guyz look at this article from www.JordanIsGod.com/LeBronIsStupid. Not sure who wrote the article, but is appears to be a genius. Anyway, it says Jordan was an MVP candidate in 2001-02. Therefore he destroyed zone defense."

Gotta love the insecurity people have about MJs legacy. There's a blog dedicated to convincing everybody how great he is.

These dudes just really like to make stuff up

At least this one has some technical truth to it, Jordan ranked 13th in MVP voting in 2002, 0 1st place votes, 16 total points

For context, this year (2025), LeBron was 6th in MVP voting with 0 1st place votes, 16 total points. So by this logic, LeBron was more of an MVP candidate this year than MJ in 2002

The worst lie I've seen in these threads was that it was a debate over who should've won FMVP in 2000 between Kobe and Shaq. Just in case you don't realize how ludicrous that claim is in the 2000 Finals, Kobe scored 15.6 ppg on 37% from the field (.411 TS) compared to Shaq's 38 ppg on 61% from the field, .576 TS. To put it another way, Shaq shot better from the free throw line (38.7%) than Kobe did from the field (36.7%)

But to be fair, that was from the dude who forgot that KD tore his Achilles in the Finals in 2019, so expecting him to remember a Finals 19 years before that isn't realistic, which is kind of how it goes for all these "I was there, I remember it perfectly!" guys, they forget more than they think they did.

[lessthanjake]

Nah. Instead he'll take the single quote from Jordan claiming a team played zone against him for one game and deduce from that that MJ would destroy zone defense

All you do is hang on to other posters’ posts and act like what they said proves everything.

Well, here’s the education on this matter, if you care to learn about it. MJ faced plenty of zones and dominated.

https://nobodytouchesjordan.blogspot.com/2014/09/section-4-jordan-never-faced-zone-myth.html?m=1

Keep in mind that Jordan played during a time without three second violation. That changes everything, including the context behind his quote. Three sec and court opening up= easy inside buckets, as euro stars keep mentioning.

If anything, Jordan in today’s game would be hilarious. We’ve heard both current and past players/coaches state he’d average more and not one single person saying less. And not a single cross era dominated in the 90s with the prior rules.

As I’ve mentioned before, nearly every lebron argument falls into two categories. 1- longevity. 2- excuses.
And this falls into category two: excuses

Lmao, this has to be your blog. Based on the name "Nobody Touches Jordan" and the homeristic claims that are in it. The article claims MJ was an MVP candidate in 2001-02 with his robust 46.8% TS% Yeah Jordan sure tore up zone defense with his "efficient" statline this year.

"Hey guyz look at this article from www.JordanIsGod.com/LeBronIsStupid. Not sure who wrote the article, but is appears to be a genius. Anyway, it says Jordan was an MVP candidate in 2001-02. Therefore he destroyed zone defense."

Gotta love the insecurity people have about MJs legacy. There's a blog dedicated to convincing everybody how great he is.

This all seems silly to me.

Jordan did basically play against zones, because the illegal defense rules eventually started not really being enforced very much. This was an open secret, somewhat similar to how palming rules exist but aren’t enforced. However, the rule’s existence did mean that teams didn’t exactly do all the same stuff they do today, nor was the space on the court at all similar to what it is now. If Jordan played in the context of today—with different rules, different enforcement of existing rules, and more space—it is surely true that his career wouldn’t be the same. Indeed, essentially every player in history would play a bit differently and have a different career, if you put them in a league with a different ruleset. But that’s not necessarily for the worse. Obviously, in today’s era, the drive-and-kick game is way stronger and more common than it used to be, because of how the game and its rules have shifted. If Jordan played today, he’d obviously do a lot more drive-and-kick, and less of some things he did in that era that aren’t as common now (for instance, we’d probably see fewer post fadeaways). Would Jordan’s career be different? Yes, of course! But would it be worse? Well, that seems like a pretty dubious assumption to make, since Jordan was absolutely elite at driving to the hoop, and he had a unique ability to hang in the air (aided by his incredible body control and large hands) to pull defenses in even further before making a pass. We saw plenty of his drive-and-kick playmaking already, and he was very good at it, even in an era where the rules/context wasn’t very conducive to it. So while there’s every reason to think Jordan would play differently under a different ruleset (as would essentially every player ever, if you put them in a league with materially different rules), there’s no particular reason to believe Jordan would be less good under today’s ruleset. He’d likely just end up leaning into drive-and-kick playmaking more and taking fewer pure isolation mid-range shots. The fact that that’d make for a somewhat different playstyle and therefore a different career doesn’t mean that it’d be worse. You want it to mean that, but it doesn’t.

[ScrantonBulls]

RealGM Jordan Superfans: "MJ could have and DID destroy zone defenses!!"

MJ: "If teams were to play zone defense, I wouldn't have the career I had."

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2001/04/01/if-zone-defenses-come-in-stars-may-go-out/

"Jordan was making an impassioned plea before the competition committee that had gathered to consider rules changes to enliven the NBA game. Jordan spoke passionately. If teams were able to play zone defenses, he said, he never would have had the career he did,"

So which one is it? Was MJ being humble about his compete and utter DESTRUCTION of zone defenses?