Ainosterhaspie wrote:michaelm wrote:So what ?. Apart from him not necessarily wanting to talk about his father’s murder and the effect on him to the world media at large, and that he specifically related his sojourn playing baseball to his father as I recall, again all you have is a hypothetical which is forever unknowable. What we do know which requires no hypotheticals is that the Jordan Bulls did manage a second threepeat and that one of those teams is well in the discussion for the best ever. It is also a matter of historical fact that no LeBron team has had a threepeat at all, and that no team of his had been as dominant as the 72 win Bulls. You guys keep crying about the strength of Jordan’s teams and the quality of his team-mates; just maybe Jordan was a better player to build a team around.
If we are to deal in hypotheticals, which is always nonsensical btw, you don’t know and no one will never know whether 18 months away from the game before returning at the fairly advanced age in basketball terms of 33 made the second threepeat more difficult as has been said, or whether Jordan might have 7 or 8 titles without the hiatus, there being perhaps more evidence that he could have won in 1995 than anything you have provided for your concocted theory given that he and the Bulls smashed the team which beat them in 1995 the following year.
I and other Jordan partisans have no need for hypotheticals in any case, we have what actually occurred. And it is rather rich for you to accuse another poster of deflection when your entire argument in regard to this matter is concocted sophistry.
You're going to have to explain how quoting Jordan himself is "crying" and "sophistry".
In the context of this conversation, 4thhorseman said Jordan need time off to rest. MavsDirk offered Jordan's father as the reason, not rest. I cited to Jordan himself explaining he was worn out physically and emotionally and considering retirement before his father passed.
Your argument here is with Jordan, not me. Take it up with him.
I already knew what Jordan said at the time, and as I said him playing baseball was partly in tribute to his father as I recall, the murder of whom was hardly trivial or unlikely to have influenced his attitude to sport and life in general at the time, which you and others of your ilk never mention when claiming greater commitment/toughness/whatever for LeBron.
Where the sophistry obviously comes in is with your attempt, or 4th Horseman’s attempt with which you appear to have agreed on a couple of occasions now, to dismiss the second threepeat, one of those 3 titles won by quite likely the best team ever, on the basis of Jordan having fairly understandably for most people taken some time out of the sport, with you apparently regarding said ludicrous concoction as proven fact. Again, the second threepeat is a historical fact, I don’t need no stinking hypotheticals. A case can be made and has been made by one poster that being the best player on a second threepeat after coming back after 18 months out of the sport at the rather advanced age of 33 made his achievement more difficult and impressive, not that Jordan’s feat is in need of any embroidery.
I guess another reason for you pretending the second threepeat didn’t occur is that it meant the Jordan Bulls won 4 titles after Jordan turned 30, the last when he was 35, rather injurious to your argument about Jordan lacking longevity.
And again this whole thread from your side of the debate has mostly consisted of attempts to explain away what Jordan actually achieved, although few have taken it as far as trying to pretend the second threepeat didn’t occur.
