07-02-2023, 12:35 PM
(07-01-2023, 04:56 PM)Synric Wrote: There is a generation gap here. I remember watching MJ in his prime back when they actually played defense. (The 98 finals was a heartbreaker for me cuz I was a Jazz fan and modeled my game after Stockton as a PG) I can't stand watching basketball now and haven't regularly (march madness mostly) in over a decade.
The 90s and the 2000 teens are are two different sports.
It's pretty simple to me. I wanted someone to beat Jordan every year throughout his prime, and pretty much all of them failed when it mattered. It took undefeated Father Time and a lot of cigars to finally make him look human.
People can talk about different eras all they want. People can talk about how underrated or overrated Pippen was, or even MJ's teams overall. It doesn't really matter. When a guy logs six titles and spent over a half decade looking completely invincible, it creates an aura and a perception of inevitability. Jordan absolutely established that and LeBron did not, at least in terms of titles.
LeBron suffered from the same things a lot of extremely gifted people do. After it's established that someone is great, people want to see them lose. They want the underdog to knock them down a few pegs. I certainly wanted to see Malone or Drexler take Jordan down, but they couldn't. LeBron has proven to be human. He's played whack a mole, hopping teams in hopes of getting that just right mix that could send him on a dynasty run. It got him titles, but it never quite went like he hoped, and many fans ate that up.
