Russell's team was stacked...you could even call it Cousy's team but Mikan team was really just him I don't think any of the top 10 from that era played with him during his run.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985%E...o_Bulls_season
Jordan didn't really that weak of a team...his second season he got Oakley and Paxson and they signed George Gervin
The 1987 lineup could have been
SG - Jordan
PG - Paxson
SF - Pippen
PF - Oakley (Horace Grant)
Center - Bill Walton was a free agent Moses Malone was on the trading block
compare Jordan's Bull's lineup with Lebron's Cleveland lineup(first run) it's night and day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985%E...o_Bulls_season
Jordan didn't really that weak of a team...his second season he got Oakley and Paxson and they signed George Gervin
The 1987 lineup could have been
SG - Jordan
PG - Paxson
SF - Pippen
PF - Oakley (Horace Grant)
Center - Bill Walton was a free agent Moses Malone was on the trading block
compare Jordan's Bull's lineup with Lebron's Cleveland lineup(first run) it's night and day.
I guess we'll start with George Mikan who none of us should be talking about because we didn't see him play. If he traveled in a time machine to the present, do you know which players would be better than him? Everybody. He was known as the freak because he was the first big man. They had to bring in the goaltending rule because he was catching the other team's shots. I wonder why he dominated lol. They changed other rules as well because of this new found height being introduced to the league, although he never played when there was a 3 point shot. One of his records is being the player who scored the highest percentage of his team's points in a single game when he scored 15 in a 19-18 loss. So forget about comparing him to players today because it was a different sport. He did play with multiple hall of famers fwiw. You can't even compare the dynastys either. There were less teams and no free agency. When you had the best team, it was much easier to keep it going. Russell's Celtics were similar there, although the competition was much better. I bet you're the kind of guy who raves about Otto Graham when you have these discussions about football, but none of us have any business going back that far.
The Bull's stuff is equally ridiculous. First of all, know that I watched every single Bulls game during Jordan's career. That's every single one, and as they happened. Yes they had George Gervin the last year of his career, when he was essentially Jamal Crawford, but that was also the year Jordan missed most of the season with a broken foot so it's not even worth mentioning. John Paxson???? Everyone loved Paxson including me, but he was an 8th or 9th man, if that, on the average championship contender. He was not a playmaker, scorer, rebounder, or defender. He hit open jumpers-that's it, never an all star, never close, and not a starting level player. By comparison, the Celtic's worst starter was Danny Ainge, who was twice the player Paxson was.
Charles Oakley of course was a rookie that year, and he was a very good rebounder, nothing more. The Bulls thought so highly of him, they traded him away for one of the biggest stiffs I've ever seen play, Bill Cartwright. Oakley's claim to fame is toughness and longevity. He didn't win anything as far as I can recall, and if he made the all star game at all, it was minimal. He was an average player.
Pippen came into the league as a baby and his reputation during his first couple of years was being a soft player. It wasn't until he became a man that the Bulls started winning. As terrific a player as he was, his greatness has become greatly exaggerated as time as passed. He played 17 seasons, won 6 championships, and was an all star 7 times. Think about that.
I remember these early teams very well and can still see center Dave Corzine trying to finish off a feed from MJ. You've got to be kidding. And no clue why you're bringing up Moses or Walton.