Michael Jordan is one of the best players to ever play the game of basketball. With a list of accolades matched by a few, Jordan made his mark in the NBA with how dominant of a scorer he was and how he led the 1990s Chicago Bulls.
Winning six championships in six NBA Finals appearances, Jordan was easily the talisman for the 90s Bulls, who were probably one of the most dominant teams the league has ever seen. These six championship rings and the six Finals MVP trophies certainly are one of the standout landmarks of Jordan’s career.
While comparing MJ to others like LeBron James in terms of the GOAT debate, fans and pundits often bring up the six championships that MJ won and how that was more impressive than LeBron’s four rings. But it seems like one former player isn’t convinced of the narrative.
In a recent episode of his show, former NBA champion Jason Williams threw some shade at MJ as he discredited the six championships that Jordan won, claiming that he wouldn’t have won them without Scottie Pippen. (42:05 onwards):
“I just look at you as a player, like you know I look at you Shaq, I watch your highlights, you can freaking hoop. I mean, I don’t really look at championships’ rings like that. Because Jordan don’t get those rings without Pippen and Pippen don’t get the rings without Jordan… It takes a team.”
The former Heat guard even claimed that LeBron James was the better player than Michael Jordan in the same episode.
While Williams might be correct in analyzing a player’s individual skill, discarding championships certainly is not the correct approach. Although there is no doubting that winning a championship is a team effort, there is often a superstar who does the heavy lifting, and for the Bulls, it was Michael Jordan.
Similarly, for any championships that LeBron James has won, he has often been the one who has put up talismanic performances. While it is correct that the 90s Bulls teams were well built, they were centered around the talents of Michael Jordan. If not for Jordan, the Bulls would not have succeeded.
