What do you get the greatest ever?
Michael Jordan turns 50 on Sunday, so friends, relatives and obsessive fans are stuck asking themselves that question. Jordan seemingly has it all: money, fame, a dream job as NBA team owner and the respect of everyone in his world.
Jordan, who now is majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s (do we really need to remind you of that?), might not want for much these days, but we figured we could help in a unique way. First, you might need a time machine.
Perhaps the most incredible part of Jordan’s six-championship run with the Bulls was the team’s complete lack of help at the game’s premier position. Had Jordan not been around, the 1990s would have been the era of the center, with Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing and young Shaquille O’Neal leading a stacked group. The Bulls, meanwhile, were starting Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley at the pivot for their championship seasons. Imagine Dikembe Mutombo or Alonzo Mourning, second-tier centers at the time, manning the paint on those teams? Or at least, it would have been decent enough to give him some big-man help in his final playing years, with the Washington Wizards.
The Bobcats are bad. Last year, they were historically bad, posting the worst winning percentage in NBA history. This year, it’s more the normal kind of awful, as they are saddled with the worst record in the NBA. Part of the problem is the lack of a go-to scorer. Jordan was a pretty good scorer, finishing his career with the highest points per game average in NBA history. Part of the problem is a lack of defense. Jordan was Defensive Player of the Year and made the All-Defensive first team nine times. So yeah, the Bobcats would well with Michael Jordan playing alongside Kemba Walker and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
