What if Jordan Created a Super Team in 1998?

[sunsbg]

He dropped 55pts against the Knicks #1 rated defense in like his 4th or 5th game back. There were no mentions of being rusty until AFTER Chicago got ousted in the 2nd round.

That's what you call a GOAT. And you know it's a team sport - chemistry matters, which is usually build for a full season.

[OdomFan]

People are forgetting that Pippen went to the Rockets after the 97-98 season. So it could be interesting if Jordan had joined him over there to play with Hakeem and Barkley.

With Drexler retiring they were missing that key starting shooting guard so maybe Jordan would have been just what they needed to really make a run at it. I imagine MJ would be able to aid Barkley in helping him fit better with the team since they were pretty good friends that knew each others games well.

Another possibility is Dennis Rodman. If you have Jordan and Pippen together, surely the Rockets front office would consider completing that old Bulls trio by bringing him in to come off the bench. Of course the lockout played a big part in how things went down too so it's hard to tell what would happen.

The Knicks is another team I'd think that MJ would consider since he's from Brooklyn and all. The Charlotte Hornets is another as well. With the Knicks you have aging Ewing and MJ together with good young talent around them that can learn from them. Michael was pretty good friends with Larry Johnson so that could help the teams chemistry, and maybe the team decides not to trade Oakley to the Raptors in this scenario so that they can have him and MJ reunited in New York much sooner then what happened in Washington.

Even if they still do the Oak trade though its' not a bad idea to have a young talent in Marcus Camby to work with along with Ewing in that rotation. Maybe they look to bring in Rodman to bring off the bench. That Knick team had a lot of heart as seen in their run to the 1999 championship, so I imagine MJ would have great respect for that and would fit right in. Only thing that might have to happen for that could be the Knicks needing to part ways with Jeff Van Gundy unless they settle their differences over the words they had with each other back in 1997. Imagine if Jeff Van Gundy does get fired and they bring in a former New York Knick to coach that team in Phil f'n Jackson. It all comes down to timing though if Jackson hadn't already inked the deal to coach the Lakers.

With the Hornets you have the city that MJ played college hoops in, MJ's old teammate BJ Armstrong, a young Eddie Jones that MJ could help mold even more into a great starting caliber shooting guard moving forward once he's out the door. Heck MJ could move to SF as he did in his Wizards time so that Jones could go ahead and have that starting SG role. Young Bobby Phills, Eldan Campbell, David Wesley, Derek Coleman, etc. I think it be a good fit.

[HeatFanSince87]

Never really thought about this but man, MJ would have easily picked up another title in 99 if he did that.

Imagine the narrative if he did. “Jordan joins another franchise and leads them to their first title in franchise history”. Lol

[ciueli]

People are forgetting that Pippen went to the Rockets after the 97-98 season. So it could be interesting if Jordan had joined him over there to play with Hakeem and Barkley.

With Drexler retiring they were missing that key starting shooting guard so maybe Jordan would have been just what they needed to really make a run at it. I imagine MJ would be able to aid Barkley in helping him fit better with the team since they were pretty good friends that knew each others games well.

Another possibility is Dennis Rodman. If you have Jordan and Pippen together, surely the Rockets front office would consider completing that old Bulls trio by bringing him in to come off the bench. Of course the lockout played a big part in how things went down too so it's hard to tell what would happen.

The problem was always money, Jordan made $30M for his last season in Chicago and there was no way any other team could pay him remotely close to that much due to the salary cap, so if he came back he was taking a massive pay cut. Chicago management had already decided they wanted to tank to rebuild their team with younger players and Jordan had drawn a line in the sand about only playing for Phil Jackson and Phil was out. He clearly wasn't returning to the Bulls.

This was also the year the lockout happened, if he came back he would have had to play a 50 game season in a brutal condensed schedule at the age of 35, after playing 82 game seasons + full playoffs in each of the 3 previous seasons for even less money than usual. Not surprisingly he chose to retire and didn't return until his 2 year stint with the Wizards, something he only did because he thought Abe Pollin was going to sell the team to him at some point.

[OdomFan]

People are forgetting that Pippen went to the Rockets after the 97-98 season. So it could be interesting if Jordan had joined him over there to play with Hakeem and Barkley.

With Drexler retiring they were missing that key starting shooting guard so maybe Jordan would have been just what they needed to really make a run at it. I imagine MJ would be able to aid Barkley in helping him fit better with the team since they were pretty good friends that knew each others games well.

Another possibility is Dennis Rodman. If you have Jordan and Pippen together, surely the Rockets front office would consider completing that old Bulls trio by bringing him in to come off the bench. Of course the lockout played a big part in how things went down too so it's hard to tell what would happen.

The problem was always money, Jordan made $30M for his last season in Chicago and there was no way any other team could pay him remotely close to that much due to the salary cap, so if he came back he was taking a massive pay cut. Chicago management had already decided they wanted to tank to rebuild their team with younger players and Jordan had drawn a line in the sand about only playing for Phil Jackson and Phil was out. He clearly wasn't returning to the Bulls.

This was also the year the lockout happened, if he came back he would have had to play a 50 game season in a brutal condensed schedule at the age of 35, after playing 82 game seasons + full playoffs in each of the 3 previous seasons for even less money than usual. Not surprisingly he chose to retire and didn't return until his 2 year stint with the Wizards, something he only did because he thought Abe Pollin was going to sell the team to him at some point.

True. Which is why I think the Knicks would have been the most likely destination he'd choose if he decided to make a come back for less money like you said. If he did he'd still be fine because he'd have his endorsement deals to keep plenty of millions coming in, and the possibility of Phil Jackson if the timing is right and they're able to convince the man to come back where it all started over taking the job in Los Angeles.

[Stillwater]

Another MJ/Lebron thread for ya'll cuz there wasn't enough for us.

But I was thinking...the Bulls blew up in 1998 and Jordan retired, while still playing at an MVP level. Had he not retired he probably could have sustained an elite level of play for at least another 2 seasons or so.

What do you think would happen if he decided to leave Chicago, join another top team, and try to show Jerry Krause he could win somewhere else?

Here are some possible scenarios:

1) Jordan joins the Spurs to team up with Pops, Duncan, Robinson, Kerr, Elliot etc.

2) Jordan joins Portland to team up with Pippen, Stoudemire, Rasheed, Sabonis etc.

3) Jordan joins the Pacers to team up with Reggie, Mullin, Rose, Davis etc.

4) Jordan joins the Lakers to team up with Phil, Shaq and Kobe.

5) Jordan joins the Heat to team up with Mourning, Hardaway, Mashburn, Majerle etc.

aka quit while you're ahead lol

[Brofessor24]

Jordan played on super teams in Chicago.

[Lost92Bricks]

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

The circumstances are completely different. MJ came off of 6 championships, 3-peating for the 2nd time and doing it in the most legendary way possible.

He (rightfully so) felt he had nothing to prove.

[Lost92Bricks]

2011 Miami and 2020 Lakers are the only seasons in Lebrons career where you could make any argument whatsoever that he played with a top 5 player. And both those teams had serious, serious roster flaws outside of that high end running mate. And when we are spending all this time looking only at “help” on each respective players roster we should also be looking at the vastly superior stacked competition Lebron would inevitably have to go through every year to win a ring at some point (often not until the finals admittedly) compared to Jordan’s expansion crazy/pre global league where there was simply not nearly as loaded a league talent wise... and any argument to the contrary should be instantly disqualifying from taking seriously the person forming it

All I see is names being thrown out without any context whatsoever. He didn’t play with a peak Wade for 4 years in Miami. He didn’t play with anyone in Cleveland who has ever been associated with any winning to speak of when not in Lebrons orbit, when Lebron sat games with the Cavs literally just about all they did was lose. Only thing Kyrie proved in Boston is that they could go further in the playoffs without him.

Wade in 2012 statistically was a top 5 player.

[prophet_of_rage]

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

The Heat won 47 games the year before Lebron joined and they added another top 15 player in Bosh.

Also you can't dismiss that the Bulls in 1994-1995 were 34-31 before Jordan returned and finished 13-4 with Jordan returning (and that's being rusty after 1.5 years out of the game).

He dropped 55pts against the Knicks #1 rated defense in like his 4th or 5th game back. There were no mentions of being rusty until AFTER Chicago got ousted in the 2nd round.

Facts. Ho killed them and Anderson stripped him.

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[The Laker Kid]

He should’ve joined Karl Malone and Stockton on the Jazzzzzz

[JulesWinnfield]

Read on Twitter

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[C0bR]

it's a well known fact that Jordan didn't have a mental and physical stamina for more than 3 long postseason runs in a row (wasn't a dog so to speak) so probably nothing good as he would run out of gas

[oaktownwarriors87]

Jordan had nothing left to prove.

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.

[The4thHorseman]

Jordan had nothing left to prove.

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.

[ATRAIN53]

The only place/team he said back then that he would play for would have been the Knicks

He wasn't going to San Antonio to play for an irrelevant (at that time they were) Spurs.

Knicks had his buddy Patrick Ewing AND his former buddy Charles Oakley.

MJ, Ewing, Larry Grand MaMa Johnson, Alan Houston, John Staks and a young Charlie Ward.
He would have gotten Barkely threre too. and coach Jeff Van Gumby!

You know that would have been FUN now that I think of it......

[ReaLiez]

If he goes to the Rockets with Pip and Hakeem and Chuck they're winning in 99 over Rookie Duncan and Robinson

In 00 if he continues to "ring chase" I imagine he would join a western team like the Kings and maybe win in one of those 3 peat years and retire in 02/03 with 8 rings and undisputed GOAT - probably the all time leader in PTS as well - that is until 2022 after LBJ 3-peats to retire with the Lakers

[oaktownwarriors87]

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.

LOL, no way a one man show is going win a Championship on a team starting a rebuild during a lockout season. The Bulls won 13 games. Only the Vancouver Grizzlies were worse. He had nothing left to prove, the front office was a joke and the players were in a strike.

Could you imagine if the Jazz started a rebuild, let John Stockton walk away and fired Jerry Sloan so they could build around Matt Harpring? Karl Malone is walking away from that team FAST.

Imagine that LeBron just won his 6th ring with the Lakers, and Jennie Buss says "sorry Lebron, we're firing your coach and letting Anthony Davis go. It's time to build around Kuzma! Hope to see you in 2021, if the season actually starts. We're still not sure."

[Benedict_Boozer]

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.

[BK_2020]

Jordan had a super team thanks to Pippen signing a bargain bin contract, so there's no need to imagine anything.

Stars back in Jordans days didn't have second stars. Other than Malone and Stockton there's no team with two HOFers.

Jordan played with two HOFers at the same time and could've been three if Kukocs came over earlier and didn't break down. Meanwhile guys like DRob and Berkeley were out there playing with Sean Elliot and Kevin Johnson as their second stars. Not balanced at all.