If it was Jordan instead of Kobe on the Lakers

[KNICKS1970]

I hate these what if scenarios, but I would bet any money that a team with Michael Jordan doesn't blow a 24 point lead in the NBA Finals.

[KNICKS1970]

Numbers aren't everything. It's also about winning and making the big plays when it counts. Which is why it its kind of insulting to see Kobe's numbers after being down 1-2 in this series compared against M.J's 2 Utah Series and described as some kind of wash. At the level of the Finals it would be folly to only use a sterile stat line to rate how important and impactful that player's performance was.

Here is M.J's 2 Utah Finals performances as recapped by John Hollinger as the number 2 and number 4 greatest finals performances of all time.

2. Michael Jordan, Chicago, 1998

If any Finals performance can be defined by a single image, it's this one: Jordan at the free-throw line in Salt Lake City, simultaneously holding his form on the game-winning basket in the clinching Game 6 and waving goodbye to the game of basketball

[KNICKS1970]

Numbers aren't everything. It's also about winning and making the big plays when it counts. Which is why it its kind of insulting to see Kobe's numbers after being down 1-2 in this series compared against M.J's 2 Utah Series and described as some kind of wash. At the level of the Finals it would be folly to only use a sterile stat line to rate how important and impactful that player's performance was.

I agree. One of the things about Jordan, especially later on in his career, was that if he saw that his teammates were getting or if he realized that the game was getting away from them, he would just know when to switch gears and take over. Guys like Bird, Magic, Isiah, and even Stockton figured that out too. During those championship years, he just had this very cerebral way of playing the game, he knew what absolutely needed to be done at certain situations in certain games. That stuff doesn't show up on a stat sheet or on basketball-reference.com.

Sometimes I wonder if people on this board who argue against Jordan (not just Kobe fans) even watched any of those Bulls playoff series. As a Knicks fan, I got an up close look at every single one of games in that classic rivalry in the 90s, so I probably don't know as much as Bulls fans who've seen every game of his, but I've seen enough where I can say that there's no one in the history of the league that knew how and when to turn it on like MJ did during those championship years. Even in those supposedly bad games he had, even in the losses. There was never a time I didn't think that Jordan was the best player on the court.

It's not that Kobe can't do it. For the first three rounds of the playoff series was the closest anyone has come to reminding me of MJ in his prime. For whatever reason though, most likely it's the Celtics defense, Kobe hasn't show that in this series.