I just want to ask a question, for all the pro-Jordan guys, it isn't a factor at all, not even the slightest bit to you guys, that he never won a playoff series without Pippen? There's nuances to greatness but I always find it unbelievable that Mike guys don't even consider that at all when talking about Mike's legacy...
Because you don't know anything about basketball from that era or the surrounding context of anything involving it.
In 1985, Jordan was in his rookie year and he faced a Bucks team which won 59 games , which was the 3rd best record that year and had the best defensive team in the NBA with 2 players in Sidney Moncrief and Paul Pressey that were all defensive players.
In 1986, Jordan missed most of the season due to injury and only came back to the playoffs to face a 67 win Celtics team, one of the best teams in NBA history. The Bulls won only 30 games that year and it was the largest discrepancy in wins of any 2 teams ever. That 30 win Bulls team had the worst or one of the worst records ever for a playoff team.
In 1987, Jerry Krause and Jerry Reinsdorf were looking to rebuild the roster and got rid of 2 of the most talented players on the team in Orlando Wooldridge and Quinton Dailey who were 2 players that had trouble with drugs. This basically left Jordan with the worst Bulls team he ever played on and he had to do with re-rebuild. People talk about Lebron's cavs teams in his 1st spell there, but these teams in Jordan's early career were much worse talent wise.
In 1988, with only the inclusion of a rookie Grant and Pippen, Jordan took a mediocre team in an incredibly strong Eastern conference to 50 wins (The East of the 80's was the strongest in the history of the NBA).
In the 1988 playoffs, Jordan averaged an incredible 45 ppg :
1988 NBA Eastern Conference First Round - Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Chicago Bulls | Basketball-Reference.com No player in today's NBA has come close to averaging such numbers in a playoff series. Pippen contributed 10 ppg coming off the bench like a good role player should. Just like the 10ppg 13 rpg Oakley contributed and the 8ppg Grant added.
So the point is in 1988, the Bulls actually faced a team they could realistically beat instead of the Celtics. Pippen's contribution was far from exceptional. If he was there, in 1986 or 1987, the Bulls still would have gotten swept in those years. A rookie Pippen was not better than Orlando Wooldrige was in those years.
