What is the most impressive carry job by a star?

[One Last Shot]

I would also say that Jordan in 98 deserves an honorable mention. The 98 Bulls are the oldest team to ever win it all. Rodman was an aging alcoholic who did WWE instead of practicing during the finals who washed out of the league afterwards, Pippen only played 44 games during the regular season and had a migraine in game 6, which is the only game in Finals history where 1 player(Jordan) outscored all of his teammates.

98 Jordan not only should be on this list, but should be the answer.

He's the only player to win a chip with only one teammate in double digits (scoring)...
in a very defensive series.......

Jordan - 33.5 PPG
Pippen - 15.5 ppg literally half the amount on lower efficiency

Then look at gamescores

Jordan - 21.4
Scottie - 13
Kukoc - 11.5

and the rest far behind with 5.4 Ron Harper and lower, in a championship win.

That's unheard of.
It's so weird but also no surprise that this isn't in the poll, given OP is a Lebron stan.

Kukoc averaged 15.2 ppg in 1998 NBA Finals while Utah's 2nd best player Stockton averaged 9.7 ppg during the Finals. Bulls have 3 of the top 4 leading scorers in that Finals series.

1998 Finals ppg
1. Jordan - 33.5
2. Malone - 25.0
3. Pippen - 15.7
4. Kukoc - 15.2
5. Hornacek - 10.7
6. Stockton - 9.7


Regarding gamescores in championship win, I think Duncan did better

2003 Finals gamescores
Duncan - 24.1
Robinson - 11.9
Parker -7.9

[MavsDirk41]

Read on Twitter

How many time that a team won a playoffs series when the other team had 5 of the 6 best scorer in the serie?!...It was almost the same thing vs pacers in the first round that year.J.R Smith was washed like crazy in 2018,Love was on decline and Korver was old....George Hill was their second best player who was not young too

Lol you know Boston was missing Irving and Gordon Hayward right? Tatum was a rookie and Brown was in his second year. Terry Rozier starting? Im not overly impressive with that Boston team considering the injuries they had especially.

Alright pal it was stil impressive but not Jordan vs Birds Celtics in 86 playoffs impressive.

Hayward play only 5 minutes in the entire season and Kyrie was out for their entire playoffs run....But no matter against who,this is very hard to win a playoffs series when 5 of the 6 best scorer of the series are from the other team.....

And Dirk beat Miami with prime James, Wade, and Bosh while outplaying James and Bosh. That is more impressive to me. Sorry pal.

[RoteSchroder]

Lol you know Boston was missing Irving and Gordon Hayward right? Tatum was a rookie and Brown was in his second year. Terry Rozier starting? Im not overly impressive with that Boston team considering the injuries they had especially.

Alright pal it was stil impressive but not Jordan vs Birds Celtics in 86 playoffs impressive.

Hayward play only 5 minutes in the entire season and Kyrie was out for their entire playoffs run....But no matter against who,this is very hard to win a playoffs series when 5 of the 6 best scorer of the series are from the other team.....

And Dirk beat Miami with prime James, Wade, and Bosh while outplaying James and Bosh. That is more impressive to me. Sorry pal.

Wade averaged more points, was a better defender and passer.
Kidd, better defender, passer and 3 point shooter.
Jason Terry, better 3 point shooter.
Tyson Chandler, better defender.
LBJ, better defender and passer.
Marion, better defender.
Bosh is overrated.

You can't outplay someone if you're not the one doing the work. Yes, Dirk was the offensive hub of that team, but you can't credit him as being the best 3 point shooter, defender or playmaker in that series.

LBJ had his worst performance of the playoffs against Dallas, maybe one of his worst playoff performances ever, and it wasn't because Dirk was shutting him down. Shutting down LBJ won the series for Dallas.

[Iwasawitness]

2018 Cleveland Cavs

James
Love
Smith
Korver
George Hill

2018/2019 Cleveland Cavs
Love played 22 games
Smith 11 games
Korver 16 games

Most of the games played were:
Osman 23 years old
Collin Sexton 20 years old
Nance Jr. 26 years old
Clarkson 26 years old
Hood 26 years old

Maybe they wanted to rebuild?

Read on Twitter

How many time that a team won a playoffs series when the other team had 5 of the 6 best scorer in the serie?!...It was almost the same thing vs pacers in the first round that year.J.R Smith was washed like crazy in 2018,Love was on decline and Korver was old....George Hill was their second best player who was not young too

Lol you know Boston was missing Irving and Gordon Hayward right? Tatum was a rookie and Brown was in his second year. Terry Rozier starting? Im not overly impressive with that Boston team considering the injuries they had especially.

Alright pal it was stil impressive but not Jordan vs Birds Celtics in 86 playoffs impressive.

It’s a well known and well documented fact that the Celtics were better without Irving that year. Numbers don’t lie and considering his playstyle, I can believe it.

[Iwasawitness]

I could also said that the 2006 finals was even a bigger upset and collapse by the Mavs!

They had completely dominate the heat in the regular season,up 2-0 in the finals,up by 13 points with like 6 minutes left,but huge collapse at the end with Dirk(a 90% free throw shooter) missing a free throw to tie the game at the end....The mavs were even a bigger favorite in 2006 that the heat were in 2011 before the finals according to the odds too!

- 2011 Mavs added Marion, Chandler, and Kidd (although Kidd was old)

- 2006 Dirk is not the same as 2011 Dirk in the playoffs

- Mavs could never handle prime Wade. He is the one superstar player who always got the best of them

- 2011 Miami Heat had 3 all star players in their prime. Not a great bench or not, they crapped the bed in the finals. Especially James. But yea, Mavs should have won in 06 but i wouldnt call them losing to Miami a worse choke job compared to Miami in 2011 but you do you.

Both were major choke job....At least the heat won the title the year after....The mavs won 67 regular season game the year after their choke job in 2006 but they had even a bigger choke job in 2007 against the 8th seed warriors in the first round.....

Mavs didn’t choke in 2006. We need to stop saying this every time the favored team loses. They were 0-3 against GS that season and there’s a reason for that. It just wasn’t a good matchup for them.

[MavsDirk41]

Hayward play only 5 minutes in the entire season and Kyrie was out for their entire playoffs run....But no matter against who,this is very hard to win a playoffs series when 5 of the 6 best scorer of the series are from the other team.....

And Dirk beat Miami with prime James, Wade, and Bosh while outplaying James and Bosh. That is more impressive to me. Sorry pal.

Wade averaged more points, was a better defender and passer.
Kidd, better defender, passer and 3 point shooter.
Jason Terry, better 3 point shooter.
Tyson Chandler, better defender.
LBJ, better defender and passer.
Marion, better defender.
Bosh is overrated.

You can't outplay someone if you're not the one doing the work. Yes, Dirk was the offensive hub of that team, but you can't credit him as being the best 3 point shooter, defender or playmaker in that series.

LBJ had his worst performance of the playoffs against Dallas, maybe one of his worst playoff performances ever, and it wasn't because Dirk was shutting him down. Shutting down LBJ won the series for Dallas.

Dirk averaged 26/10 leading the Mavs in scoring and rebounding in the series. He also put up 10 4th quarter points per game during the series on solid efficiency, minus the game he was sick. Yea he had a solid veteran team obviously that was just as crucial but Dirk was the go to guy and only Wade possibly outplayed him. Carlise is also an underrated coach but yea, im giving Dirk his credit, sorry.

On a side note Bosh isnt overrated he just went from being the man in Toronto to the 3rd wheel in Miami.

[MavsDirk41]

Read on Twitter

How many time that a team won a playoffs series when the other team had 5 of the 6 best scorer in the serie?!...It was almost the same thing vs pacers in the first round that year.J.R Smith was washed like crazy in 2018,Love was on decline and Korver was old....George Hill was their second best player who was not young too

Lol you know Boston was missing Irving and Gordon Hayward right? Tatum was a rookie and Brown was in his second year. Terry Rozier starting? Im not overly impressive with that Boston team considering the injuries they had especially.

Alright pal it was stil impressive but not Jordan vs Birds Celtics in 86 playoffs impressive.

It’s a well known and well documented fact that the Celtics were better without Irving that year. Numbers don’t lie and considering his playstyle, I can believe it.

I wasnt fond of Irving until he came to Dallas and he was horrible in the finals against Boston but the guy is a clutch performer and his shotmaking, especially in the paint against bigs, is ridiculous. I have a new respect for that guy after watching him the last year and a half.

[Iwasawitness]

Lol you know Boston was missing Irving and Gordon Hayward right? Tatum was a rookie and Brown was in his second year. Terry Rozier starting? Im not overly impressive with that Boston team considering the injuries they had especially.

Alright pal it was stil impressive but not Jordan vs Birds Celtics in 86 playoffs impressive.

It’s a well known and well documented fact that the Celtics were better without Irving that year. Numbers don’t lie and considering his playstyle, I can believe it.

I wasnt fond of Irving until he came to Dallas and he was horrible in the finals against Boston but the guy is a clutch performer and his shotmaking, especially in the paint against bigs, is ridiculous. I have a new respect for that guy after watching him the last year and a half.

I'll always have a soft spot for him, but I can't deny that he wasn't very good as the leader of a team. His iso heavy style of offense isn't a good thing to have for a point guard. He's never been a good fit as the best player on your team. Now as your second fiddle on offense? Ridiculous asset to have and we don't win the 2016 championship without him, period.

[Pelon chingon]

Glad to see Dirk winning out, pretty much cemented LBJ out of any legitimate GOAT conversations.

[bledredwine]

I would also say that Jordan in 98 deserves an honorable mention. The 98 Bulls are the oldest team to ever win it all. Rodman was an aging alcoholic who did WWE instead of practicing during the finals who washed out of the league afterwards, Pippen only played 44 games during the regular season and had a migraine in game 6, which is the only game in Finals history where 1 player(Jordan) outscored all of his teammates.

98 Jordan not only should be on this list, but should be the answer.

He's the only player to win a chip with only one teammate in double digits (scoring)...
in a very defensive series.......

Jordan - 33.5 PPG
Pippen - 15.5 ppg literally half the amount on lower efficiency

Then look at gamescores

Jordan - 21.4
Scottie - 13
Kukoc - 11.5

and the rest far behind with 5.4 Ron Harper and lower, in a championship win.

That's unheard of.
It's so weird but also no surprise that this isn't in the poll, given OP is a Lebron stan.

Kukoc averaged 15.2 ppg in 1998 NBA Finals while Utah's 2nd best player Stockton averaged 9.7 ppg during the Finals. Bulls have 3 of the top 4 leading scorers in that Finals series.

1998 Finals ppg
1. Jordan - 33.5
2. Malone - 25.0
3. Pippen - 15.7
4. Kukoc - 15.2
5. Hornacek - 10.7
6. Stockton - 9.7


Regarding gamescores in championship win, I think Duncan did better

2003 Finals gamescores
Duncan - 24.1
Robinson - 11.9
Parker -7.9

My fault - 1997 Jordan is the only player to win a chip with only one teammate in double digits

98 is still the winner though!
As for 97? Jordan had 32.3, Pippen 20 ppg on significantly lower efficiency in a very similar series

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1997-nba-finals-jazz-vs-bulls.html

He was also playing against all-time greats Karl Malone and John Stockton, not Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

[Iwasawitness]

98 Jordan not only should be on this list, but should be the answer.

He's the only player to win a chip with only one teammate in double digits (scoring)...
in a very defensive series.......

Jordan - 33.5 PPG
Pippen - 15.5 ppg literally half the amount on lower efficiency

Then look at gamescores

Jordan - 21.4
Scottie - 13
Kukoc - 11.5

and the rest far behind with 5.4 Ron Harper and lower, in a championship win.

That's unheard of.
It's so weird but also no surprise that this isn't in the poll, given OP is a Lebron stan.

Kukoc averaged 15.2 ppg in 1998 NBA Finals while Utah's 2nd best player Stockton averaged 9.7 ppg during the Finals. Bulls have 3 of the top 4 leading scorers in that Finals series.

1998 Finals ppg
1. Jordan - 33.5
2. Malone - 25.0
3. Pippen - 15.7
4. Kukoc - 15.2
5. Hornacek - 10.7
6. Stockton - 9.7


Regarding gamescores in championship win, I think Duncan did better

2003 Finals gamescores
Duncan - 24.1
Robinson - 11.9
Parker -7.9

My fault - 1997 Jordan is the only player to win a chip with only one teammate in double digits

98 is still the winner though!
As for 97? Jordan had 32.3, Pippen 20 ppg on significantly lower efficiency in a very similar series

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1997-nba-finals-jazz-vs-bulls.html

He was also playing against all-time greats Karl Malone and John Stockton, not Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

Dennis Rodman was instrumental to slowing down Karl Malone, severely limiting his averages in that series to 23 PPG on 48% TS. I'm starting to think some of you don't know what a carry job is.

The idea of a carry job is that the individuals contributions are so great that no one else's comes close to comparing. Dennis Rodman locking down the opposing teams top scorer is pretty damn important.

[bledredwine]

Kukoc averaged 15.2 ppg in 1998 NBA Finals while Utah's 2nd best player Stockton averaged 9.7 ppg during the Finals. Bulls have 3 of the top 4 leading scorers in that Finals series.

1998 Finals ppg
1. Jordan - 33.5
2. Malone - 25.0
3. Pippen - 15.7
4. Kukoc - 15.2
5. Hornacek - 10.7
6. Stockton - 9.7


Regarding gamescores in championship win, I think Duncan did better

2003 Finals gamescores
Duncan - 24.1
Robinson - 11.9
Parker -7.9

My fault - 1997 Jordan is the only player to win a chip with only one teammate in double digits

98 is still the winner though!
As for 97? Jordan had 32.3, Pippen 20 ppg on significantly lower efficiency in a very similar series

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1997-nba-finals-jazz-vs-bulls.html

He was also playing against all-time greats Karl Malone and John Stockton, not Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

Dennis Rodman was instrumental to slowing down Karl Malone, severely limiting his averages in that series to 23 PPG on 48% TS. I'm starting to think some of you don't know what a carry job is.

The idea of a carry job is that the individuals contributions are so great that no one else's comes close to comparing. Dennis Rodman locking down the opposing teams top scorer is pretty damn important.

Duh, all team championships involve a team.

But offensively, one of the biggest carry jobs of all time.

Thats young Jordan summed up, really.

The real craziest carry job is actually 89 against the Cavs! Last three games 44 50 and 44 points to including “the shot” over Ehlo. The Bulls weren’t supposed to win.

Jordan had a game score of 30.1, Pippen 11.3 and Grant close. In terms of carry jobs, only Hakeem is remotely close to this.

Can you check that one out and let me know what you think?


or you can choose 1988 when Jordan has the only back to back 50 point playoff games in history against the Cavs

or 1993 when he averaged 41 in the finals and had all of the Bulls fourth quarter points until Paxson hit the game winner

You can choose all of young Jordan and a lot of prime Jordan when Pippen had trouble scoring.

[bledredwine]

It’s a well known and well documented fact that the Celtics were better without Irving that year. Numbers don’t lie and considering his playstyle, I can believe it.

I wasnt fond of Irving until he came to Dallas and he was horrible in the finals against Boston but the guy is a clutch performer and his shotmaking, especially in the paint against bigs, is ridiculous. I have a new respect for that guy after watching him the last year and a half.

I'll always have a soft spot for him, but I can't deny that he wasn't very good as the leader of a team. His iso heavy style of offense isn't a good thing to have for a point guard. He's never been a good fit as the best player on your team. Now as your second fiddle on offense? Ridiculous asset to have and we don't win the 2016 championship without him, period.

How about a player carrying the whole playoffs and upsetting teams?

Michael Jordan's underrated carry job in '89 playoffs

In 1988-89, it was the last season he played for Doug Collins, he played in the Lebron/Luka role where everything went through him. Phil would implement the triangle next season which made him move more off ball and wasn't the main playmaker anymore.

Jordan's best teammates on this team were sophomore Pippen and Grant, first year they were starting. He didn't have any allstar or all defense teammates on this roster, and they finished with the 6th seed.

Jordan averaged 32/8/8 on 61% TS in the regular season, he also made the defensive first team and finished 5th in DPOY voting. He famously had an 11 game stretch during the season where he played point guard and averaged a triple double. He came .6 rebounds and .1 blocks from leading his team in all 5 statistical categories for the entire regular season, while scoring more than twice as much as the next best scorer.

In the playoffs is where the magic happened though, where he carried the 6th seed to the ECF and stole two games from the eventual champions, with some insane individual dominance in the first and second round upsets.

First round

Bulls play the 3rd seed Cavs who came with three allstars from that year in Brad Daugherty, Mark Price and Larry Nance.

Jordan averages 40/6/8 on 60% TS, the series was best of 5 and went to 5 games, where Jordan hits "the shot", a game winning buzzer beater to close out the series, one of the most iconic shots of all time.

Second round

Bulls play the 2nd seed Knicks, who had two allstars from that year in Patrick Ewing and Mark Jackson and three more players averaging around 15 ppg.

Jordan averaged 35/9/8 on 64% TS, he also added 2.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, which made him lead his team in all 5 statistical categories and finish the upset in 6 games.

ECF

They went up against Jordans biggest rival through his career, the Bad Boy Pistons. They had swept their way through the first two rounds, and swept the Lakers in the finals as well (without Magic), but would end up needing 6 games to get past the Bulls.

Jordan averaged 30/5/6 on 56% TS in this series, significantly worse than the previous rounds, but was still comfortably the best player on the court.

The Pistons used a defensive scheme against Jordan coined "the Jordan rules", which was a combination of very much help, pretty much abusing illegal defense rules, and assaulting him whenever he got to the rim. The Pistons still had multiple all nba defenders to throw at Jordan like Dumars and prime DPOY Rodman, but the way they defended Jordan is looked on as controversial to this day.

This series is one of the biggest reasons the Bulls promoted Phil and implemented the triangle, to make it more difficult to scheme against one single player who did everything.

All things considered, I think this is one of the most underrated carry jobs of all time, and is a strong case for Jordan's ability to also be a floor raiser and carry bad teams on deep runs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/weemsb/michael_jordans_underrated_carry_job_in_89/

[meekrab]

87-88 Jordan scored a full third of the Bulls' points on a 50 win team.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

no 06 Wade?

[red96]

Hakeem, followed closely by Dirk are the answer to this poll.

[Iwasawitness]

I wasnt fond of Irving until he came to Dallas and he was horrible in the finals against Boston but the guy is a clutch performer and his shotmaking, especially in the paint against bigs, is ridiculous. I have a new respect for that guy after watching him the last year and a half.

I'll always have a soft spot for him, but I can't deny that he wasn't very good as the leader of a team. His iso heavy style of offense isn't a good thing to have for a point guard. He's never been a good fit as the best player on your team. Now as your second fiddle on offense? Ridiculous asset to have and we don't win the 2016 championship without him, period.

How about a player carrying the whole playoffs and upsetting teams?

Michael Jordan's underrated carry job in '89 playoffs

In 1988-89, it was the last season he played for Doug Collins, he played in the Lebron/Luka role where everything went through him. Phil would implement the triangle next season which made him move more off ball and wasn't the main playmaker anymore.

Jordan's best teammates on this team were sophomore Pippen and Grant, first year they were starting. He didn't have any allstar or all defense teammates on this roster, and they finished with the 6th seed.

Jordan averaged 32/8/8 on 61% TS in the regular season, he also made the defensive first team and finished 5th in DPOY voting. He famously had an 11 game stretch during the season where he played point guard and averaged a triple double. He came .6 rebounds and .1 blocks from leading his team in all 5 statistical categories for the entire regular season, while scoring more than twice as much as the next best scorer.

In the playoffs is where the magic happened though, where he carried the 6th seed to the ECF and stole two games from the eventual champions, with some insane individual dominance in the first and second round upsets.

First round

Bulls play the 3rd seed Cavs who came with three allstars from that year in Brad Daugherty, Mark Price and Larry Nance.

Jordan averages 40/6/8 on 60% TS, the series was best of 5 and went to 5 games, where Jordan hits "the shot", a game winning buzzer beater to close out the series, one of the most iconic shots of all time.

Second round

Bulls play the 2nd seed Knicks, who had two allstars from that year in Patrick Ewing and Mark Jackson and three more players averaging around 15 ppg.

Jordan averaged 35/9/8 on 64% TS, he also added 2.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, which made him lead his team in all 5 statistical categories and finish the upset in 6 games.

ECF

They went up against Jordans biggest rival through his career, the Bad Boy Pistons. They had swept their way through the first two rounds, and swept the Lakers in the finals as well (without Magic), but would end up needing 6 games to get past the Bulls.

Jordan averaged 30/5/6 on 56% TS in this series, significantly worse than the previous rounds, but was still comfortably the best player on the court.

The Pistons used a defensive scheme against Jordan coined "the Jordan rules", which was a combination of very much help, pretty much abusing illegal defense rules, and assaulting him whenever he got to the rim. The Pistons still had multiple all nba defenders to throw at Jordan like Dumars and prime DPOY Rodman, but the way they defended Jordan is looked on as controversial to this day.

This series is one of the biggest reasons the Bulls promoted Phil and implemented the triangle, to make it more difficult to scheme against one single player who did everything.

All things considered, I think this is one of the most underrated carry jobs of all time, and is a strong case for Jordan's ability to also be a floor raiser and carry bad teams on deep runs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/weemsb/michael_jordans_underrated_carry_job_in_89/

I’m not reading any of that because it has nothing to do with what I’m talking about in this particular conversation.

[Iwasawitness]

My fault - 1997 Jordan is the only player to win a chip with only one teammate in double digits

98 is still the winner though!
As for 97? Jordan had 32.3, Pippen 20 ppg on significantly lower efficiency in a very similar series

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1997-nba-finals-jazz-vs-bulls.html

He was also playing against all-time greats Karl Malone and John Stockton, not Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

Dennis Rodman was instrumental to slowing down Karl Malone, severely limiting his averages in that series to 23 PPG on 48% TS. I'm starting to think some of you don't know what a carry job is.

The idea of a carry job is that the individuals contributions are so great that no one else's comes close to comparing. Dennis Rodman locking down the opposing teams top scorer is pretty damn important.

Duh, all team championships involve a team.

But offensively, one of the biggest carry jobs of all time.

Thats young Jordan summed up, really.

The real craziest carry job is actually 89 against the Cavs! Last three games 44 50 and 44 points to including “the shot” over Ehlo. The Bulls weren’t supposed to win.

Jordan had a game score of 30.1, Pippen 11.3 and Grant close. In terms of carry jobs, only Hakeem is remotely close to this.

Can you check that one out and let me know what you think?


or you can choose 1988 when Jordan has the only back to back 50 point playoff games in history against the Cavs

or 1993 when he averaged 41 in the finals and had all of the Bulls fourth quarter points until Paxson hit the game winner

You can choose all of young Jordan and a lot of prime Jordan when Pippen had trouble scoring.

I checked it out and, while pretty insane, doesn’t really change my view.

The big problems I have with citing Jordan is that he didn’t impact the game in the multitude of ways that guys like LeBron, Duncan and Hakeem do. He doesn’t run the offense and while he’s definitely an all time great defender at his position, one on one defender just doesn’t hold the same weight.

Someone mentioned Duncan in 03, others have mentioned Hakeem in 94. LeBron in 07 and 18 have been commonly mentioned as well. At the end of the day, no matter how much scoring Jordan does, it’s still just that: scoring. I’m far more impressed with LeBron doing it while also running the offense or Duncan dominating in multiple aspects of the game.

It’s for that reason that Jordan, as terrific as he was, doesn’t really deserve consideration here.

[babyjax13]

I'm too young to remember the older ones, but in my memory it would be Dirk.

[bledredwine]

Dennis Rodman was instrumental to slowing down Karl Malone, severely limiting his averages in that series to 23 PPG on 48% TS. I'm starting to think some of you don't know what a carry job is.

The idea of a carry job is that the individuals contributions are so great that no one else's comes close to comparing. Dennis Rodman locking down the opposing teams top scorer is pretty damn important.

Duh, all team championships involve a team.

But offensively, one of the biggest carry jobs of all time.

Thats young Jordan summed up, really.

The real craziest carry job is actually 89 against the Cavs! Last three games 44 50 and 44 points to including “the shot” over Ehlo. The Bulls weren’t supposed to win.

Jordan had a game score of 30.1, Pippen 11.3 and Grant close. In terms of carry jobs, only Hakeem is remotely close to this.

Can you check that one out and let me know what you think?


or you can choose 1988 when Jordan has the only back to back 50 point playoff games in history against the Cavs

or 1993 when he averaged 41 in the finals and had all of the Bulls fourth quarter points until Paxson hit the game winner

You can choose all of young Jordan and a lot of prime Jordan when Pippen had trouble scoring.

I checked it out and, while pretty insane, doesn’t really change my view.

The big problems I have with citing Jordan is that he didn’t impact the game in the multitude of ways that guys like LeBron, Duncan and Hakeem do. He doesn’t run the offense and while he’s definitely an all time great defender at his position, one on one defender just doesn’t hold the same weight.

Someone mentioned Duncan in 03, others have mentioned Hakeem in 94. LeBron in 07 and 18 have been commonly mentioned as well. At the end of the day, no matter how much scoring Jordan does, it’s still just that: scoring. I’m far more impressed with LeBron doing it while also running the offense or Duncan dominating in multiple aspects of the game.

It’s for that reason that Jordan, as terrific as he was, doesn’t really deserve consideration here.

That's a really unusual take. Jordan impacted both ends of the floor as much as anyone.

And more than Hakeem, Lebron, or anyone you mentioned, Jordan held the teammates accountable,
holding them to a very high standard and turning practices into wars, which made games easy-
this has been said by multiple players, from Scottie to BJ, Grant etc.

To say he didn't have a multitude of impact is wild. And when he played point for the Bulls? He averaged near a 32 point triple double during the season while only playing PG for a portion of it. In 1991? He averaged 32.5, 11.4 (3rd highest finals assists of all time behind Russell and Magic) with awesome defense.

There was not much else if anything he could have done to be impactful.

This is why Jordan and Scottie 3-peated twice with two different supporting casts, and Pippen himself stated that Jordan's push made him the player he became (Jordan used to have Pippen guard him during practice when he was young in the league)

The only players that holds others accountable like that whom you mentioned is probably Duncan or Hakeem to an extent, but nearly the same extent as Jordan.

Either way, I appreciate you acknowledging that. Lebron's are impressive as well.