Re: Rank these past NBA Teams
Tuq and KidCollin,
Like I said, I understand those who differ. however:
The Kerr Clone was Craig Hodges.
Paxson was way better than Kerr. He didn't play quite the defense of Harper obviously, but was way better at the offensive end. Harper was a terrible perimeter shooter, which is what the Bulls needed offensively between Jordan's godliness and Pippen slashing.
Rodman was fun and a great rebounder, but I always thought he was a little overrated as a defender, at least during his Bulls tenure when he really was already past his prime (he was flat-out bad on defense the last year of the 2nd 3peat). And, of course, he was an all-time bad offensive player. Horace was in his prime. Played good defense. Could post up and had a good midrange game.
Cartwright was at least as good as Luc offensively and way better defensively. He did great work against Ewing when very few could slow him down.
Honestly, I think all 3 are greater than their counterparts.
Also, and I know I'll catch flack for this, I think it's evidenced by the bulls (IMO) beating better teams in the first run. That Lakers team wasn't as good as in years prior, but were still good. The Portland team was great, as was the Suns team.
The Seattle team the 2nd 3peat team played was IMO always overrated, though I understand those who liked them. And Utah was good, but really, were they any better than those Portland or Phoenix teams? I don't think so. That last Bulls team was life and death vs. Indiana in the conference finals (I was at Game 6 in Indianapolis, the Reggie Miller pushoff game), and that Indy team was nice, but certainly not any kind of great team IMO. Jordan simply willed that last team to a title.
Further reason for my opinion is the weakness of the league during Jordan's absence, both before and after the 2nd run. The year immediately before and after the 2nd 3peat were both very poor. I don't think it was magically better during those 3 years, and it's likely evidenced by the obnoxious 72 wins. Said another way, I think early 90's NBA teams at the top were better than late 90's teams, and I don't think it's that close. The NBA, excluding the Bulls, was pretty poor for a good while and it really took until the Lakers-Kings rivalry in 01-02 to really recover. (The exception being the Lakers and Blazers in 99-00).
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