Coming On Fast

What did Stachel Page say?  Oh, right, “Don’t look back.  Something might be gaining on you.”  That would be my advice to Bulls’ fans in the Michael Jordan/LeBron James best-of-all-time debate.  Folks, the real question should be:  Who was on the better team, Jordan or Stephen Curry?  I wouldn’t necessarily put my money on Michael and his Jordanaires.

Bulls’ fans will probably say Curry and Golden State could never compete with those Chicago teams from the 1990s, when fouls were much honored in hardly ever being called.  Granted, a shooter like Curry could be forced off his game with a hack here and a hack there by Jordan, Dennis Rodman, et al, but consider this—could those Bulls keep up with these Warriors today?  I just don’t think so.  And another thing for all you Rodman fans to consider.  Golden State’s Draymond Green could probably do unto Rodman—and Jordan and Scottie Pippen and John Paxson—as Rodman would try to do unto others.

Jordan/Pippen/Horace Grant or Curry/Kevin Durant/Klay Thompson?  That would be a matchup for the ages.  What it might all come down to is the coaching, with the Bulls giving the Warriors a secret weapon.  That would be Steve Kerr, who came off the bench for the second three of the Bulls’ six Jordan-era championships; Kerr now has three rings as head coach of the Warriors.  How smart is Kerr?  He declined the Knicks’ coaching job when Phil Jackson offered it to him.  How smart is Jackson?  He could’ve retired as the coaching genius behind Jordan in Chicago and Kobe Bryant in LA, but he went to New York to run the Knicks.  Enough said.

Maybe Jackson could match Kerr for every X and O, but I doubt it.  If only there were a way to be proven right or wrong.  Until one comes along, we’ll have to settle for stats and anecdotes over pizza.