None of those guys are #1's and possibly not #2's on a title winning team. Brand was a 2 time all star. Also they got Chandler for trading Brand.
Tyson Chandler literally was the 2nd best player on a championship team. And how can you say that about Williams since he played 1 season. you are correct though about brand for Chandler
Tyson Chandler made 1 all star game in his career. Thats a role player, not a second star. I thought Jason Terry was the 2nd best player on that team but you could argue for about 4 guys in that role.
I don't know about the entirety of the regular season, but I would definitely say Jet Terry and JJ Barea were the two best players in that Finals after Dirk.
There is a ton of “what it’s” that need to be factored in past what you mentioned about the players you also have to factor in MJ badly fucked up his finger that summer and likely was going to miss a significant portion of the season and the NBA had a lockout and a new CBA was put in place. All that being said we are only speaking about “what if’s” because we had a owner who had no desire to spend the money to try for 7. With no will at the top the what if’s don’t matter they are just false excuses for the owner
SIAP But yeah Jordan's claim of wanting to run it back is BS. phil and Jordan were gone no matter what Also the pizza story is 110% bullshit
I tend to believe Smith over Jordan in this instance, but I have to believe Smith's story comes from Reinsdorf, and that story seems rather convenient for him.
Totally understand how a guy like MJ could get bored as shit in park city and decided to go down to Vegas for a night, assuming that rumor about the flu game just being a hangover from a night in Las Vegas might be true ironically MJ has a ridiculous house he owns in Park City he’s been trying to sell https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/michael-jordan-selling-park-city-home/
watching this Lance Armstrong 30 for 30 doc, thought it was funny how he talks about making up rivalries in his head just to get in the right frame of mind given the previous 5 weeks of tv that filled this time slot
Really missed not having the Last Dance tonight. Missed the hell out of him the last 20 years. So glad I saw the 90s run.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/michael-jordan-tape-saying-wouldn-230045080.html For years, Jordan has denied any involvement in Thomas not making the Dream Team. Rod Thorn, who was on the selection committee for the 1992 Olympics, has backed Jordan’s version of events. But Jordan once revealed a different story. Jordan on Jack McCallum’s “The Dream Team Tapes:” Rod Thorn called me. I said, “Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team.” He assured me. He said, “You know what? Chuck doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team.”
Jordan snitching on Chuck all those years ago is kind of funny considering what happened to their friendship. Barkley can't criticize him for being an awful owner/exec as part of the media, but Mike can just throw him under the bus in a recorded, on the record conversation about one of the most controversial basketball stories of the last 30 years.
I think you are confusing Chucks. It was Daly that MJ said Rod told him didn't want Thomas. If that's true, maybe leaving him off the team wasn't that controversial. Daly of course is sadly no longer with us. But someone could ask Rod today whether Chuck really told him that. I feel like Piston fans might not be happy with his answer.
Good call. Didn't even think of that. I have a hard time believing Chuck Daly flat out didn't want Isiah on the team. I can believe he didn't put up a fight to bring him on in order to make sure he got the rest of the players he wanted, though.
Who cares if he didn’t want him on the team? I don’t get why this has reared back up? If it came down to MJ or Isaiah it’s a no brainer.
Doesn't matter where it came from, its complete bullshit either way. Steve Kerr made 265k in 97 and Pippen was making 2 mil, Jordan made more money than the rest of the 14 guys on the roster combined, by like 4 mil. Unless he was voluntarily cutting his own salary by like 60%+, there was zero chance that entire roster gets brought back. Hell to convince Scottie to sign on a *one* year deal Reinsdorf would have had to pay him like 30 mil to wash out the bad blood.
Pippen got 4x his Bulls salary the next year in Houston. No way he was turning that down for another run while MJ got $30M+
Because of the Jordan doc where he called Isiah an asshole and then contradicted a direct statement he made on the record regarding his role in leaving one of the most accomplished players of his era off the most famous team in sports history
Sure, but what he did say correctly was that he was not the only one against Thomas being on the team. Makes it worse if he was the only one to feel that way/discuss it with Thorn or Daly. At least IMO.
I'm sure he wasn't the only person who didn't want Isiah on the team. I think there's a pretty good chance he's the only one who would have even considered not playing if Thomas were on the team (and even that I kind of doubt, given how badly Nike would have wanted him there). Regardless, it was 30 years ago and I don't really care one way or the other. Just saying the doc brings it back into the conversation.
I don't get why the Dream Team stuff is such a big deal to everyone. They hated each other, you were gonna either get MJ or you were gonna get Isiah, its not like MJ was gonna do the Dream Team no matter what, then forced Isiah out, Isiah was never on the team to begin with and wasn't gonna be on it because they wanted to get MJ.
MJ said Pippen would have been the problem. Either way, just seems like they were all checking out - Jackson included. No one person responsible (I haven’t seen that episode yet).
I think people are surprised that MJ hated him that much. Not to mention, preventing someone from being on the dream team and getting that experience is kind of brutal.
im genuinely confused by the people wondering why this is getting attention Jack McCallum released his podcast series that has audio evidence Jordan lied in the doc, a doc that is one of the most watched in history that finished up like a week ago. Of course it's going to get news coverage. all of this stuff we're talking about is decades old
I wasn’t aware Jack McCallum released anything. In 92 I just remember reading Jordan hated Isiah and that’s essentially why he wasn’t on there. Dude had more enemies than just Jordan but I get why he wasn’t on the team if a 1/4 didn’t like him.
Because MJ doc basically was a chance for MJ to spin any major or minor controversy he had in a favorable light to him, and lied during it. I really dont care, just find it funny he called Isaiah an asshole and called him out for not having a consistent story about walking off the court yet he himself has contradicted himself about refusing to play if Isaiah was on the team. None of this really matters, we need to get sports back is the real lesson
And that's no one's fault but Isiah's own. MJ was priority #1 sure, but getting Magic and Bird back together as the captains on that team were firmly priority #2 and by that point Isiah already burned his bridge w/ Magic by insinuating he got HIV because he's gay and Bird already hate him.
Has he ever said "I would have played for the Dream Team even if Isiah was there?" It was an either/or 30 years ago and its still an either/or today. Hell if Rod Thorn and/or Chuck Daly wanted Isiah so badly, they could have simply not bother asking Magic, Larry or MJ to begin with, I'm sure a Dream Team featuring Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, Karl Malone still would have swept through the Olympics.
You are missing the point completely. No one is saying taking MJ, Bird and Magic and leaving Isaiah off the team was a wrong decision. Don't know where you are even suggesting anyone is saying that. People are only commenting about Jordan, who previously stated he said he wouldn't play if Isaiah was on the team, just went on the biggest sports documentary release recently and claimed he played no role in leaving Isaiah off
We're talking semantics here, but didn't MJ say in the doc that Thorn or whoever called him initially began their pitch to him by alluding to the fact that Isaiah wouldn't be on the team? I realize MJ didn't own up to making the decree himself, but he pretty much stated that the people involved with the team knew where things stood. I admit MJ could have just said "yeah, i didn't like the motherfucker" since he had no problems talking shit about him otherwise on camera. The vagueness was unnecessary.
Uh oh you guys are talking about the doc in a way that isnt gushing fanboyism again. Someone isnt going to like this
Didn't Jordan specifically say in the doc that he never said he wouldn't play if Isaiah was on the team? I mean it's been over a week since I've seen it but I think he specifically claimed he never said that. I may be wrong though
It was implied that he wasn’t going to play if Isiah was on the team, but he never explicitly asked for him not to be on the team. Who needed this doc the most: the general sports public, MJ superfans, or sports talk hosts?