- TRUEHOOP suggests wonders why Michael Jordan was critical of LeBron James joining the Super Friends in Miami when he himself was so bitter towards Jerry Krause, the architect of all of those championship teams.
For at least a year now, we’ve been hearing people criticize LeBron for potentially (and now actually) leaving the Cavs to play with another superstar. One of the arguments they often bring up is how Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, or Magic Johnson would never have left Chicago, Boston or L.A. to form a dynasty elsewhere.
Now, even Jordan has said that he wouldn’t have called those guys up and tried to join forces.
“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’ ” Jordan said after playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. “But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”
Skip Bayless, in his infinite wisdom, has been saying this for months, and took this moment to gloat a bit about what MJ said.
“Michael said, ‘I’m going to stay in Chicago.’”
In September of 1988, coming off his first MVP, Jordan signed an eight-year deal worth $25 million. (Soak those numbers in for a moment…the greatest player ever to play the game made about $3 million a season in his prime. Amazing.) The Bulls were 50-32 the previous season (Scottie Pippen’s first year in the league) and were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. So his playing situation was not unlike LeBron’s, though I don’t think too many NBA stars would choose the city of Cleveland over Chicago.
The Chicago Bulls have a deal in place that would move Kirk Hinrich and the 17th pick to the Washington Wizards, freeing up enough cap space to pursue two maximum-salary players on this summer’s free-agent market, sources with knowledge of the Bulls’ plans said Thursday.
It wasn’t immediately clear what Washington would send to Chicago in the trade.
Since it’s a good-faith deal for the time being, there remains a chance it could fall apart. But according to one source, the Sacramento Kings are prepared to make a similar deal with the Bulls in the Wizards’ stead if that were to happen.
Hinrich is a good defender and is talented enough to be the fourth or fifth best player on a contender, so the Bulls are giving up a good player, even though it’s creating the flexibility to sign two max free agents.
Now the Bulls can go to LeBron James and Chris Bosh and offer to sign them both to max or near-max deals to play with Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng.
In order to get this much talent together, a team has to have plenty of cap space (check) and 1-2 budding stars that are still on their rookie contracts (check, check). The only con to playing in Chicago is the long shadow of Michael Jordan. Will LeBron want to play in a city where his legacy has almost no chance of measuring up to that of the greatest player ever to play the game?
In an ESPN Insider column, Ric Bucher writes that one factor prospective teams will have to weigh is whether or not to give LeBron the kind of power that he’s enjoyed with the Cavs over the last seven years.
Just know that the Cavs are where they are — capped out with a modicum of trading chips — because the team power structure supposedly has looked like this: owner Dan Gilbert, GM Danny Ferry and head coach Mike Brown.
With James standing just below Gilbert and just above Ferry.
Multiple league sources say that the Cleveland Cavaliers, in their attempt to keep James since drafting him with the No. 1 pick seven years ago, have done just that. Two opposing GMs, without citing specific examples, said they know James has vetoed deals Ferry would have made over the past few years.
Meanwhile, the acquisitions of Larry Hughes, Mo Williams, Shaquille O’Neal and Antawn Jamison all have been made at James’ behest, sources say. And whether it’s by James’ hand or the Cavaliers’, the team has been constructed on the presumption that he is Michael Jordan, a scorer and finisher, rather than Magic Johnson, a playmaker who needed a go-to closer alongside him to win titles. “They tried to make him Michael,” says one league executive. “He’s not.”
Hmm. That makes me wonder what this team would look like had Ferry had his way on those aforementioned (undisclosed) trades. Players are notoriously bad at player personnel because like most things in life, it’s difficult to see the forest for the trees.
Also, with this kind of power, LeBron has to (or should) take a lot of responsibility for the failures of this hand-picked group of players over the past few years. Does he look at it that way or does he blame the game plan and player rotations? Only he and his boys know.
It has to be tempting for a team to offer LeBron this kind of power. Without it, they probably don’t sign him and they’re left to several more years of mediocrity. With him on the roster, barring injury, they’re basically guaranteed that they’ll make the playoffs every year, and who knows, if his personnel decisions finally work out, maybe they win a title.
That said, the Bulls don’t appear to be one of those teams. They didn’t give Michael Jordan that power so it’s doubtful that they’ll hand it over to LeBron.
It sure sounds like Bobcats owner Michael Jordan wants to limit the effectiveness of Dwight Howard by putting him on the foul line. In an excerpt from an interview to air on Sunday on NBA TV, MJ outlines what would be his strategy:
“So if I’m looking at (Dwight) Howard, and I’m not Larry Brown, I haven’t talked to Larry Brown about the strategy, I would look at it in that scenario; we’ve got four seven footers, in essence we have 24 fouls. Somehow we are going to have to use that to neutralize (Dwight) Howard and not allow these other guys, their perimeter players, to hurt us in the double teams, kind of like Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott back in the day. That would be the strategy, and I feel like if we can execute that strategy we will give ourselves the best chance to win.”
Anytime someone starts talking about how many fouls their big men have, it’s bound to get ugly. Given Howard’s propensity to miss free throws, this is certainly a viable strategy, but it’s not one I want to watch in action.
“We’re getting ready for the playoffs,” Brown said. “I love my team. I love coaching. I’m 70 years old. I want to coach for Michael Jordan. That’s where I’m at. I’m happy here.
“It’s no fun being away from my family and [wife] Shelly. That’s always going to be the case. But I love what I’m doing.”
What else is he going to say?
I’m sorry, but I am not going to buy Brown’s story unless he opens next season as the head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats. This guy doesn’t stay in one place for too long. In fact, the only place he has stayed for more than four seasons is Philadelphia.
Coincidentally squared, Next Town Brown, I’m informed, has received approval from Bobcats owner Michael Jordan to return home, home on the range — Philadelphia — where his wife, school-age children and the antelopes still play, to re-take control of the 76ers from top to bottom.
Larry Brown in a dual coach/GM role? This ought to be good.
I think it’s safe to say that the Sixers are a mess. They won’t have any significant cap room until the summer of 2011, and the Elton Brand signing hasn’t exactly worked out.
Still, there is some talent here — Jrue Holiday, Marreese Speights and Thaddeus Young are nice prospects and Andre Iguodala is a good all-around player. Brown has a history of raising the level of bad franchises, but he doesn’t have a long-term outlook and typically burns out pretty quickly. How does that work when he’s the general manager?
Like I said, this ought to be interesting.
Update: Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the Clippers are another possibility.
Bill Simmons wrote a long column that compares Tiger’s eventual comeback to those of some of sport’s other iconic athletes. One point jumped out at me…
At gunpoint, if I could wager on any conceivable scenario, I would wager on Tiger coming back in severe Eff You Mode, like a seething MJ in Game 1 of the 1992 Finals. The greatest ones have a way of channeling negativity and fueling it toward whatever makes them great. Jordan made a habit of it. So did Ali. But they were also larger-than-life personalities, whereas Tiger was always just someone who was freakishly good at golf and that’s it.
I can see Tiger coming back with a vengeance, but basketball (and boxing, for that matter) is unlike golf in that pure effort and energy can overcome one’s opponent. Typically, in basketball, an athletically inferior team can be victorious if they outhustle its opponent. Defense, rebounding, loose balls — success in these areas depends largely on a team’s effort. So if MJ’s shot wasn’t falling, he could take his “Eff You Mode” and apply it elsewhere and dominate the game. And when the best athlete on the court is playing harder than anyone else, good things will happen.
I don’t think Tiger can do that in golf. Effort is only going to matter when he’s practicing, and while this is vitally important to a successful comeback, effort is not going to matter much when it comes time to play a tournament. Golf is a game of millimeters, and passion isn’t going to help much when titles are on the line. If channeled, this passion and determination can help in the form of focus, but there is also the chance that Tiger becomes too focused and it pushes him off the rails.
Whatever happens, it’s going to be interesting to watch.
