What if Jordan Created a Super Team in 1998?

[rasta_marley]

He had a team that won 55 games when he decided to play baseball. The team that Lebron played on that would win 55 in his absence never existed

Then when it became clear after 1998 that Jax and Pip wouldn’t be brought back by Krause, he quit. He didn’t retire, he straight quit. Took his ball and went home. Didn’t have the guts to do what Lebron did at a similar age with the 2019 Lakers, play in a situation where he might lose. His own ego let him think he could come back a few years later just like his ego made him think he could play baseball, try to make it work with young Rip Hamilton and the number 1 pick he hand selected in Kwame Brown. Dude he thought was the prototype. Karl Malone and KG rolled into one. That was him trying to create his own little super team set up. But like other things, he wasn’t as good as Lebron at picking talent either

Well the spin your trying to out on this makes no sense lol.

[OdomFan]

So why did he say he was pissed off that the Bulls didn't try to go for 7 titles?

Nothing was stopping from him from trying to do so with Chicago in 1999.

Nothing was stopping him? They wanted to rebuild the team.

So!!

He just had a season where he was league MVP, FMVP and voted All-NBA on both sides of the court. Most believe he was still playing at an elite level so he definitely could have signed another deal with Chicago and went for 7.

Funny how he contradicts himself by saying he wanted to go for 7, but when he quit again after that 1998 season, he said it was due to mental and physical exhaustion.

None of that mattered because clearly the teams GM was ready to move on from that era. Why do you think it be a good idea for MJ to stick around if your team is about to part ways with the coach and all of the pieces that made it possible to help him win that 1998 championship? You wouldn't. MJ could have kept going but after completing a second 3 peat within a decade there was nothing wrong with him choosing to go out on top with that reputation of never playing for any other team.

[camby23]

Imagine Jordan on the Knicks, wow that would have been amazing to see. He already ruled the basketball universe, but imagine him winning a title with the Knicks - the world would have exploded and he and Ewing would have been a nasty combo.

Ewing got injured in 99 ECF and couldn't play in the finals. Knicks were destroyed on the boards by Duncan and Robinson and Jordan wouldn't change that.

[Mazter]

His stats dropped rapidly throughout his second 3-peat. Scoring was at it's lowest since his rookie year, TS% was at it's lowest ever, assisting, rebounding. Besides that his ego was too big to be second fiddle at any moment of the season. Even after his second comeback he wouldn't let anyone take more shots than he did.

I expect him to average 25-26 ppg on 51-52%TS with even rustier defense. He would have demanded something he wasn't up for anymore. Any superteam with Jordan in 98/99 would not have ended well. I think of all people Jordan knew this best. Hence one of the reason for him not even trying.

[trueballer7]

Read on Twitter

s=21

If understand the visual implications of this graph correctly, Magic Johnson has the same value as Klay Thompson and lesser value than 2016 Draymond Green whose 2017 version seems to have bigger value than Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. The only player that seems to match 2017 Draymond Greens' value is 1996 Gary Payton who was three times as valuable as Shawn Kemp.
This is the fruit of gruelling intellectual work and needs to be taken very seriously.

[BK_2020]

Magic had the aids in 91 he wasn't fully himself.

[OdomFan]

Imagine Jordan on the Knicks, wow that would have been amazing to see. He already ruled the basketball universe, but imagine him winning a title with the Knicks - the world would have exploded and he and Ewing would have been a nasty combo.

Ewing got injured in 99 ECF and couldn't play in the finals. Knicks were destroyed on the boards by Duncan and Robinson and Jordan wouldn't change that.

Well it's pretty silly to just assume that Ewing would get injured in the 1999 ECF no matter what. Nobody knows what would have happened.

[OdomFan]

Magic had the aids in 91 he wasn't fully himself.

He wouldn't have been on the floor at all if what he was going through was truly bothering his focus on the game. Btw he never had Aids, he was HIV positive.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

What if no one created lebron vs jordan offseason threads on the general board of realgm?

[rzzzzz]

Michael sliced the tendon of his finger with a cigar cutter after he won that last title. Doug Collins, his coach in DC, says that Michael was never able to grip the ball properly after that. self-inflicted, obviously. probably under the influence. but an accident he never fully recovered from.

i'm not sure what those years in DC were all about. he used to hang out at night in the various posh "Gentlemens Clubs" there, drinking by himself in the velvet roped off section. seemed to be a real sadness about him. and then, of course, there was the whole Kwame Brown fiasco. whatever the underlying issue, Michael was not going to be part of another championship at that point.

[HomoSapien]

I don't think he would've ever seriously considered doing that. That said, I'll throw you one interesting scenario that I've written about in the past.

After Pippen retired, he wrote an article for the Chicago Tribune about his career. In it, he wrote that he really regretted going to the Rockets because Hakeem and Barkley were done, and wished he had sat out the lockout year and joined the Lakers in 99-00. Had he sat out, Jordan, Pippen, Jackson, and Rodman would have all been "free-agents" at the start of the 99 season. They could've joined forces somewhere else, but I often think what if they all entertained the idea of returning to the Bulls? At that point, the Bulls would have tanked for one year and their new roster would've looked something like this:

C.Brand/Perdue/Anstey
PF.Rodman/Kukoc/Simpkins
SF.Pippen/Artest
SG.Jordan/Harper/Hoiberg
PG.B.Barry/Armstrong/Brown/Maloney

Not exactly a super team, but I think young guys like Brand, Artest, Brent Barry, and even Hoiberg would have really meshed well with the old guys. That could have been a fun, retooled Bulls team.