Drygon wrote:Heej wrote:This dude couldn't win without Pippen lol.
That's great, they still went on to get eliminated in the 2nd round tho. No one could do it without help, but this post will explain why Jordan mentally needed Pippen more than other superstars needed their sidekick.
What people don't understand, and what I didn't really get until watching KD win in 2017, is that so much of a team's capacity is defined by the roles that people play. And I don't mean the typical conception where there's stars and role players, I mean the literal high level strategic and communication based roles on a basketball team.
People think KD had potentially the GOAT Finals in 2017 looking at numbers only because he put up crazy high volume on God-tier efficiency, while taking on the assignment of guarding LeBron on many possessions. But to people who watched that Finals it was painfully obvious that the most important Golden State player was Curry, because the whole offense ran through him and the whole Cavs defense sold out to stop him at the expense of leaving KD on an island.
This is where the idea of roles and responsibilities came to light for me, because the game was extremely simplified for KD by having Curry on the offensive end functioning as the team's primary playmaker; which freed up energy for KD to purely score. And I don't mean physical energy either, for anyone who's played and has heard these players talk about playing at a high level, there's an emotional energy expenditure involved with setting up your team's offensive sets and putting people in the right position to score. Curry assumed that strategic role for the team and bore the mental burden for KD. This concept is extremely relevant to MJ as I'll get into later.
On the flipside, on defense communication and putting people in the right spots and calling out opposing sets has even more of a premium placed on it, and the energy expenditure from that is even greater. But people who are able to fulfill that middle linebacker-esque role are hugely valuable. JR Smith mentioned it in one of their post game interviews how LeBron makes everyone on the court a step faster on defense because he's always telling people where to be. Just the mental expenditure from that alone is naturally going to drain yourself from other facets of the game. It's the same role that Draymond played on the Warriors; and as Phil Jackson wrote in Eleven Rings, Scottie was the one who assumed the middle linebacker role on the Bulls and put everyone in the right spot.
However, along with being the defensive playcaller, Scottie was also mentioned as being the primary offensive playcaller and facilitator putting teammates (i.e. Jordan) in their best positions to score. So here we have a guy in Jordan, who like KD, Is placed in the most optimal environment to focus on his own scoring and his own assignments and basically only have to play the role of main scorer; while Scottie filled in every other primary role (which I define as offensive playcaller, defensive playcaller, main individual defender).
This is why MJ was never able to find the right balance as a player and fully succeed from a team standpoint, even when given point guard duties, because he mentally was not cut out to assume the other primary roles within a team construct. He was a virtuoso individual force, he even mentioned as much that he was primarily focused on understanding how to attack his own man, but he couldn't fully maximize those other main attributes necessary to elevate his teammates and could really only focus on the main scorer and occasionally main iso defender role. This is why he needed Scottie because Scottie was essentially the coach on the floor that a team needs which MJ wasn't capable of filling, but that's something LeBron's developed himself into where he can fill in those cracks no matter where he goes.
This is why MJ needed Scottie, because he was literally incapable of doing the floor general things to a high level that Scottie was able to do. And this is honestly why I think he had such an easy time of it in his career because he was placed in literally the most optimal position for a player of his disposition and tendencies. Jordan fans really hate this argument though, but it's whatever to me lol. This is the main reason why I put LeBron over Jordan slightly even though I think Jordan could very well be the better individual player. He just was way too specialized and we never got to see him in a suboptimal situation during his prime the way LeBron was forced to on many occasions.
I'm sure y'all will see more throughout the documentary and there will be things said in interviews that really confirm the importance of the roles Pippen played on the team. This is a big reason why MJ said you need to mention Scottie's name with his, because there's a mental/emotional load aspect to the game that most vlog bois don't really comprehend. But until then I'm sure insecure Jordan stans are gonna try to flame/troll me incessantly after getting their feelings hurt by this take.
LeBron's NBA Cup MVP is more valuable than either of KD's Finals MVPs. This is the word of the Lord
