Damn, a lot of those teams were so damn close. KG’s injury in 08-09 still haunts me …
Wonderful_Eagle_6547
That 90-91 team still really burns me up. Larry and McHale just didn’t have the health to compete. Those first 3 Bulls titles may not have happened if not for Larry/Kevin’s failing health and Bias dying pre-maturely. The Celtics front office had built a more-than-capable roster of young guys (Dee Brown, Shaw, Fox, Lewis, Bias, Gamble, Pinkney and Kleine) to support the Big 3 winning titles into their mid-30s. Healthy Larry would have fully actualized the point forward role with Bias and Lewis taking on the majority of the scoring duties and doing the heavy lifting on the offensive end. Putting up 20-10 and 7 shooting 50/40/90 with a more fulsome utilization of the 3 pointer as a weapon and nightly mismatches as the other team’s best and most athletic defenders tried to deal with Bias and Lewis (so for example, the ’91 Bulls probably put Jordan and Pippen on Reggie and Len, leaving Horace Grant to cover Bird). McHale would have become a nightmare reserve for 20-25 minutes a night – imagine scrub-ass back-up bigs trying to stop a more healthy McHale on the block in limited minutes? Parish was still an all-star in 1991 and more than capable starting center (especially if his minutes could be limited to 25 – 28 a night) into his late 30s (the guy played 74 games and 2000 solid minutes when he was in his 40 year old season in 1994).
I feel like Bird and Magic having teams to compete for titles and having injuries / illness end their careers prematurely is a major footnote in MJ’s case for the GOAT.
blobthetoasterstrood
Was surprised to not see the 86 Celtics in here. Looked it up and their record through 35 was 27-8, just one away from the screenshot
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Damn, a lot of those teams were so damn close. KG’s injury in 08-09 still haunts me …
That 90-91 team still really burns me up. Larry and McHale just didn’t have the health to compete. Those first 3 Bulls titles may not have happened if not for Larry/Kevin’s failing health and Bias dying pre-maturely. The Celtics front office had built a more-than-capable roster of young guys (Dee Brown, Shaw, Fox, Lewis, Bias, Gamble, Pinkney and Kleine) to support the Big 3 winning titles into their mid-30s. Healthy Larry would have fully actualized the point forward role with Bias and Lewis taking on the majority of the scoring duties and doing the heavy lifting on the offensive end. Putting up 20-10 and 7 shooting 50/40/90 with a more fulsome utilization of the 3 pointer as a weapon and nightly mismatches as the other team’s best and most athletic defenders tried to deal with Bias and Lewis (so for example, the ’91 Bulls probably put Jordan and Pippen on Reggie and Len, leaving Horace Grant to cover Bird). McHale would have become a nightmare reserve for 20-25 minutes a night – imagine scrub-ass back-up bigs trying to stop a more healthy McHale on the block in limited minutes? Parish was still an all-star in 1991 and more than capable starting center (especially if his minutes could be limited to 25 – 28 a night) into his late 30s (the guy played 74 games and 2000 solid minutes when he was in his 40 year old season in 1994).
I feel like Bird and Magic having teams to compete for titles and having injuries / illness end their careers prematurely is a major footnote in MJ’s case for the GOAT.
Was surprised to not see the 86 Celtics in here. Looked it up and their record through 35 was 27-8, just one away from the screenshot