just saw this now. not a huge NBA fan but Gawd is this an awesome review. I should do something of a similar style kinda for my inevitable 100th, even though that won't be for a while.

BigHans: yeah he did, and I also agree about the 91-93 teams having better offense in the post. Wennington and Cartwright could get you buckets if needed, and Jordan always went to them to start the game. Ho Grant was a far superior scorer to Rodman (although he never pulled the trigger on the dagger three balls!). 96-98 Bulls had Jordan as their default post-player, bc like you guys mentioned, he probably had one of the five best post-up games in the NBA during that time-period, even better than Kobe's now (which is still damn good).

One more thing about games being fixed and Reggie. It should have been the Pacers playing the Spurs, not the Knicks. In the determining game, the Knicks shot at least 20 more free throws than the Pacers, which was odd considering the Pacers were pretty much a finesse team and the Knicks played prison style basketball. If the Pacers had won, the NBA finals would have been a match of two of the smallest markets in the country (SA wasn't a dynasty yet), and the ratings would have sucked.

Much as the Kings/Lakers game was rigged, so was that Knicks/Pacers game.

Jordan was feared by his teammates, this made them better during games and during practice (cause they didn't want to get punched in the face by Jordan!) Kobe doesn't really have that power over his teammates.

I read someone saying how Kobe would not shoot to prove a point even if it meant they lost. Winning was the most important thing to Jordan and he would do ANYTHING to win he would never risk losing to prove a point

Oh yeah MJ. I'm a Laker fan but I've never seen anyone like Jordan.

Can you break down Kobe vs Lebron?
I think Kobe is one of the best players in the last few years but might be on the downside of his career. Physically Lebron is incredible but mentally I don't think he's anywhere near Kobe's level

why compare lebron and kobe when the celtics r gonna win it all this year.

teams > players


paul pierce is better than both.

or celtics in 6

@ theacademy
forgetting Orlando?

lol u guys should trust me. i'm a die-hard mlb, nfl, and nhl fan who knows little about basketball. this happens to be one of those years where the celtics win it all. rondo finals mvp, celtics in 6.

Rondo must be killing himself that he signed his extension before this latest outburst.

^definitely, if he was a FA this summer, he'd arguably be right behind LeBron and Wade as the #3 most sought-after guy on the market. I think he'd be more wanted than Bosh even.

can you imagine Jordan, Magic, Bird or even Kobe doing what Lebron did last night? I don't know what was worse, the way he played or his post-game interview.
Choosen One my ASSSSSSS!

i'm from orlando, i'm pretty sure we have a more than solid chance of winning it all this year

bye bye Lebron.
once again: Choosen One my ASSSSSSS!

LBJ wont come to Chicago MJ, he's too afraid of your shadow. I'll say this again, similar to when I flat out guarenteed that the Celtics and Lakers would meet in 2008 before the playoffs started. It will be Celtics and Lakers again, mark it down. Why? Ratings. The NBA has proven time and again that they will rig conference final games to slide the bigger market teams into the Finals.

^if the NBA really cared about ratings more than anything, they would've found a way to put LeBron vs. Kobe on the national stage last year instead of letting the small-market Orlando Magic into the showdown. Also, let's not forget that the Spurs (bottom 7 NBA market) won 4 championships in the last 11 years... Kobe vs. LeBron is the matchup the NBA wants to see in the Finals, but it won't happen until 'Bron comes to Chicago.

If Broussard (and the 6-7 sources he cited) is correct, then it will be Rose + Hinrich + LBJ + Bosh + Noah next year and a new dynasty will be born..

Inveigh, I think Cleveland played so poorly it didn't matter. I didn't watch enough of it to judge the officiating, and maybe the league is scared of doing this now because of the Donaghy scandal, but there are three games from the past that left no doubt in my mind the games were rigged.

Kings/Lakers, Game 6
Blazers/Lakers, Game 7
Pacers/Knicks, Game 6

If the Bulls got Lebron and Bosh, the rest of the league wouldn't even need to show up to games.

I forgot to mention game three of the Knicks/Pacers sereis. The game the Knicks won by one point on Larry Johnson's famous 4 point play. The play the ref (I think it was Dick Bevata), allowed a continuation shot almost a full second after Johnson was fouled.

I agree on the Pacers and Kings games, I'm just not sure if those were actually rigged by the NBA because of market size, or if those particular refs (I'm pretty sure Donaghy ref'd that Kings game) were betting on those games or if the officials simply sucked in those games. You guys are old enough to remember, the Bulls very well could've won a championship in MJ's first season of retirement, if Hugh Hollins hadn't screwed them with the phantom foul on Pippen that gave Hubert Davis the free throws to win the game. That Knicks team went on to lose to the Rockets in the Finals that year (1994).

Also, it's not like that series last year was a blowout. I remember all the games being pretty close (and did we already forget that LeBron game-winner where he acted like he'd never done it before?) and the series went 6 games... I also don't remember officiating playing any role at all. My other point is that those 4 Spurs championship teams all went through L.A., Dallas and Phoenix to get there (all three larger market teams), so the NBA had plenty of chances to fix those series and didn't.

also,

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/15881/lebron-to-the-bulls-3-gms-think-so