JordansBulls wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
I think that article sums it up nicely.
A little intellectual honesty please. They didn't change the rules. They just started calling them as written. In the 80's it wasn't a problem because no one played any defense by today's standard. In 1987-88, Detroit's "legendary" Jordan Rules team was the best defense in the league because they held teams to 104ppg and an icy 47% from the field.
That's not even considered defense today. The best defensive teams today hold their opponents under 90. Hell, 27 teams hold their opponents under 47% from the field.
According to Mark Cuban, the league stated they changed the calling of the games because of all the excessive in the league was bring scoring way down compared to the 80's- early 90's (when the excessive contact didn't exist). Specifically, they didn't like the way the Pistons got away with so much contact in the NBA Finals against the Lakers.
That's one game. If you really want to know the difference in their scoring ability take a look at the playoffs where one averages more than 10 ppg more than the other and shoots 5% better.
And don't forget to mention that some teams averaged 10-20 ppg more on 5-8% better shooting during most of Jordan's career. Not to mention that teams (like the Cavs, and Celtics) used Jordan's "selfishness" and scoring against him. They basically let him score and shut down everyone else to win.
Kobe OTOH figured that part out (particularly in the last three years) and makes it a point NOT TO SCORE A LOT in order to compete with superior teams like Phoenix. You did watch the LAL-PHX games of the last few seasons, right?
Jordan never really did understand why he could score 63 and lose or 69 and scrape by against an average team. He showed that in Washington too. Not to mention the 1992 Olympic team where he took by far the most shots and had by far the worst fg%.... Barkley and others were shooting 55-70% and he was shooting 45%.
Objective analysis of Jordan's scoring shows you that he was the leagues biggest egomanic and insisted that if he wasn't going to dominate the ball and score then he'd rather not play at all... as he said in Washington.
"I'm sure they'll jump off the bandwagon. Then when we do get back on top, they're going to want to jump back on, and we're going to tell them there's no more room." - Kobe in March of 2005