OhayoKD wrote:Frosty wrote:I was a huge Bulls fan at the time and Pippen was a favorite of mine. At no point that season did I feel they were legit title contenders.
This just feels like an agenda being pushed
Citing your feelings to call using what actually happened "agenda pushing" is an interesting approach
To be honest, I didn't read the entire thread. This topic comes up semi regularly and the people pushing the narrative usually expose a parallel narrative they are actually more interested in pushing. None of it is novel.
They usually don't understand the context of the Bulls season. This is usually evidenced by statements like
If Chicago's first round opponent was comparably good in the regular season, had outscored the bulls with home court, or played them to a close 7-game series as opposed to getting rofl stomped in a sweep this might be closer to an interesting hypothetical.
I mean I haven't heard "rofl stomped" for over a decade. For someone to make such a statement while ignoring that Cleveland was missing their starting SF/PF and C either suggests ignorance of the facts or an attempt to push a narrative and hope no one understood the facts...
Or
We can engage in what could have been or what is. Chicago clearly levelled up from their 55-win regular season
Levelled up? "Clearly"? I mean who is to argue with such undisputed facts.
Usually at some point the parallel narrative comes up. If the Bulls were title contenders without Jordan, the narrative around Jordan weakens. It usually comes out in statements like
That said, I think any reasonable interpretation would acknowledge the bulls 55-wins potentially undersold them as a team in 1994. Which is fine. Making a contender/near-title cast into one of the best teams ever is excellent lift and evidences an all-time player.
It does not evidence being the very best player ever(or even come close to). As can be said for floor-raising a 30ish win team to 50ish
Hence the decades of sad revisionism and baseless theory crafting that have followed.
or
But since a certain player was not on the 94 version of the team we need to downplay what happened,
And I'll counter that "But since a certain player was not on the 94 version of the team they need to exaggerate what happened"
Like I was saying, I was a Bulls fan before Pippen was drafted, I became a huge fan. I would have liked nothing more for the Bulls to win in 1994 as I was a Bull's fan and also thought Pippen wasn't getting the recognition he deserved. But it was clear that they needed a true number one option when things got tight.