Michael Jeffrey Jordan is one of the most accomplished players basketball has ever seen. As a 14x All-Star, 10x Scoring Champ, 5x MVP, and 11x All-NBA player, the Bulls legend retired with all the accolades one could imagine.
But perhaps his most impressive feat was leading the Bulls to six NBA Championships during the 90s. In a span of eight years, he would make history by securing two three-peats against some stiff competition.
Still, when looking back on it today, not everybody sees MJ’s run the same way.
In a conversation on Scoop B Radio, former Lakers trainer Gary Vitti called Jordan’s playoff competition weak, downplaying the level of difficulty he faced in winning some of those titles.
“When Michael got his first ring in ’91 and the five that came after it, there wasn’t anybody left. The Lakers were done because Kareem had retired, and then Magic came up positive for HIV in ’91. So he wasn’t challenged again by the great Laker team, the ones that because Kareem had already retired before ’91, so he wasn’t part of that series against I don’t know what they would have done. They had Bill Cartwright, and they had Cliff Levingston; I mean, what were they going to do with Kareem?
So he didn’t play the Lakers, the Celtics got old very very fast. Bird, Parish, and McHale all got old at the same time, so the Celtics were done. There was no challenge there, and the Pistons were done, so basically when you really look at the six rings that the Bulls won, they didn’t play anybody, they didn’t play any of the championship-caliber teams of the 80s like the Lakers, the Sixers, the Celtics, and the Pistons. All four of those teams had basically had their run, and it was over, and so it’s not taking anything away from him because he did what he was supposed to do. He dominated, but the game wasn’t the same game, it was different.”
The 1991 Finals marked the end of the ‘Showtime’ Lakers era. It was Magic’s last full season and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had retired two years earlier.
Jordan never actually beat Larry Bird in the playoffs, with Bird going 6-0 in the series they faced off against each other. By the time Jordan’s Bulls took the scene in the 90s, the Celtics were a shell of themselves until Bird finally retired at the end of the ’91-92 season.
Similarly, the Pistons also gave Jordan trouble early on before Father Time eventually ended their run right as the Bulls began their prime stretch.
So, in a lot of ways, Vitti is right. Jordan caught a lot of breaks throughout the 90s, as it was a transitional year that saw many long-time great dynasties fall as the result of time
But it’s important no note that MJ also faced a lot of brutal competition in the highest levels, including the Malone/Stockton Utah Jazz, the late 90s Pacers, and even the ’92-93 New York Knicks with Charles Oakley, John Starks, Doc Rivers, and Charles Smith.
Just like every other star in the NBA, Jordan faced plenty of challenges, even if he did get a little lucky with the timing of his career. But can we blame him for taking advantage of an era that seemed to be perfectly suited for his arrival?
