I watched both. Kobe at his best was just as prolific defensively as Mike. Def the more versatile defender. Why couldn't MJ defend John Stockton, Kobe would have. What about Penny? What about GP?
Kobe was defending Westbrook, CP0 in yr 17
MJ was a great defender no doubt but he wasn't checking Zeke, Larry, etc...
Mike tried to check Magic & got killed
Mj did guard smaller guards in particular zeke go back and watch the 89 ecf
And why even bring up Stockton he wasn’t a scorer and towards the end of his career he wasn’t a great penetrator who could collapse a defense no need to put your best defender on him
And can people stop with this magic killing mj thing
Magic didn’t score more then 25 points in a game for that entire series
Jordan got in foul trouble in game 2 so they switched pippen oh him
Jordan continued to guard magic in games 3,4 and 5 and did a damn good job of defending him yet all the credit goes to pippen because of that full court defense highlight
Defense is probably the most skewed attribute in basketball people run with narratives and not facts