It is often said how fans these days just love to nitpick when it comes to the greats of the game. LeBron James for example gets routinely criticized despite winning 4 championships with many citing that his latest triumph in 2020 deserves an asterisk because it was in the Bubble.
Well, it turns out fans nowadays aren’t all that different from the ones in the past and even the great Michael Jordan wasn’t spared from all the asterisk talk. Jordan may well be regarded by many as the GOAT and he gave his opponents like Vernon Maxwell sleepless nights, but not everyone was impressed with what he accomplished. A discussion board from 1999 shows a fan saying that all of Jordan’s titles deserve an asterisk, as shared by u/guynumber32.
“The record book will say. Michael Jordan – 6 NBA rings*
*A watered down league, Never beat a truly great team to win a title. That’s what it will say. Magic, Bird, and Dr J. can all say they beat some truly great teams in their prime. Jordan CAN NOT say that.
*Dr J got his ring in the early 80’s by beating an awesome Lakers team that had Magic, Kareem, Nixon, etc.
*Larry got his rings by beating possibly the greatest team of all time. The ’86 Lakers with Magic, Kareem, Worthy, Cooper, etc.
*Magic got his rings by beating possibly the greatest team of all time. The ’85, 87, and ’88 Celtics with possibly the best frontline ever of Bird, McHale, and Parish.
And don’t give me that crap about the Bulls beating the ’90 Lakers. Kareem was gone. Worthy was a bench warmer by then and Magic was way past his prime while Micheal was in his prime. Don’t get me wrong, Micheal is great and winning six titles is quite an accomplishment but if you look at the teams he beat to get there it’s not as impressive. I’ll take Magic’s five rings against some of the best teams ever over Mike’s six against much weaker teams in a watered down league anyday.”
It is true that Jordan never really defeated an all-time great team in the Finals but you can only beat what is put in front of you and in the end, he won those titles over an 8-year period, a significant amount of time. You can also make an argument that he never really beat an all-time great team for the simple reason that he never lost in the Finals, so none of them had any claim to greatness.
More than anything else, it shows how fans haven’t really changed all that much over time. This is something you can easily picture seeing posted on social media nowadays, and if you thought fans were any different in the 1990s, then you are mistaken.
