Quote from TM_Direct:
....the game is on.....im 6"3 ..can still dunk and also play the wing...went to school for hoops as well but got thrown out for this fire alarm incident
Works for me!
kidding aside....i don;t understand canyon's argument...you seem to be proving my point....MJ played alongside Scotie Pippen who was voted one of the top 50 players of all time...I may disagree with that but the guy was good and he was an incredible defender...look what he did to majic in the first finals....
Didn't you know? It's on the record for easy verification. The initial rap on Scottie was that he was soft. You could spook him out of his game (and into headache mode) very easily. In his second year in the league, Mike had started becoming vocal in practice about Scottie's softness during the game but tenacity during practice. It all came to a head in a game against Atlanta.
Manute called scottie a P-ssy a few times and by half-time Scottie had gotten a little angry. As they walked to the locker room Mike just looked at Scottie, smirked and smiled. Scottie took it personal and a few minutes into the third quarter, he was on the left baseline with the ball in hand. His defender made a misstep and Manute was in the hole. The "Dunk that Woke Scotties Career" was the news tag on the late sports reports here. From then forward he BECAME the defender of the team. Second only to MJ. But he worked to be better than MJ in that category.
HOrace Grant was probably the finest all round power forward of the 90's...he could shoot when called for, rebounded and played incredible defense...especially weakside help...often ime he would guard the opposign centers...he may not have scoed 25 a game like malone, but he also played d and blocked shots.....
He became a shooter (and he admitted it) when MJ kept telling him take the shot. Horace had a point of MAKING SURE he was not able to get a pass when the game depended upon it. He could shoot but had little confidence in taking the game winner. He had been murdered in the press for a few bad "end of game" shots and just didn't want the pressure. MJ was instrumental in him gaining confidence in his own abilities. And as teams started developing defenses and clamping down on Scottie's performance Horace was easily able to pick up the slack.
Of the curent Lakers....how many are going to the Hall? How many are getting paid alot becuase they were a member of his team? Jones, Campbell, van exel???
If they do, it won't be for their current performances. They are mediocre at best. This is that TV bunch that I spoke of. They don't seem to understand their places on this team and consistently fall way short of the needed outputs. Sure they can combine for 10 points and six boards. But none of that is hall of fame performance stuff.
He does make everyone around him better and if you look at his cast right now it's pretty pathetic,,,Samakai Walker or Horace Grant/Dennis Rodman? Derek Fisher or BJ Armstrong/Paxon? Rick Fox or Scottie Pippen? I would say this: take that list of players and put them together and for the Bulls you would still have a decent team,,,,the lakers would be in the lottery IMHO
You make my point here. With the exception of Scottie, Horace, Dennis and Paxon the rest are really just window dressings. With the exception of BJ who really never fit the chemistry, none of those players would have been selected to play on that MJ Bulls team. Management did understand what they wanted and ego management was important. Especially in the beginning.
It became a thing with management saying, "We can add anybody to this bunch and still be the best team out." They dumped many players and added other unknowns and still held the top spot. They did forget how all this came to be. So today all of the players have been moved to other teams and not been able to achieve that unity again. It really makes me sad! They had the answer and lost the question.
