The last dance

Nothing to do with the Last Dance, but I once had dealings with a short white sales rep called Michael Jordan. He'd spent years in the 90s travelling all over the states, and every time he got off a plane, there would be a crowd of excited basketball fans waiting at the arrivals gate, who would obviously ignore him. Just seeing the name MJ on a passenger list was obviously too much for airline staff to keep quiet, and that was before social media !

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29158278/five-reasons-michael-jordan-just-good-today-nba%3fplatform=amp

Interesting article

You are quite right - very Jordan biased. I think if anything it lends weight to Mr Talls argument about it depends on what your age is largely. I thought it was interesting but you can pick holes in it. For example it gives Jordan the credit for dominating offensively due to the less physical defence being played but then glosses over the fact that he played physical defence himself....but would still be a dominant defender! I don't necessarily disagree but you can make these articles tell whatever narrative you want.

I tend to believe all the best players from any era would've found a way to thrive in any era had they grown up in that era. A more interesting debate is the time machine where you take prime Magic Johnson and stick him in this season. How would he get on. Could he shoot well enough from deep to keep teams honest? Would be be exposed in the pick and roll or would switching suit him due to his size? I think he'd find a way to thrive.

I also think that you underestimate how good those 3 centres were. Young Ewing and Hakeem and Robinson were all dominant defenders who had plenty of speed to handle the occasional switch. If you took just Hakeem and put him with the current Rockets team his biggest issue would be getting the ball :-). I often wonder if a new Shaq came along what would happen? There are so few bigs in the league he could tear through games if the coach was brave enough to risk possibly mismatches versus small ball line ups. Phil Jackson was the last coach who had the guts to stay tall versus the increasing trend to get smaller and quicker. Gasol, Odom and Bynum playing volleyball on the offensive glass. Its what makes for fascinating games.

I think i agree with this until you hit the 50s, i dont think Mikan would be good in todays league

I meant to put that I think once you go back into the early 60s/50s its probably not always the case.

Yes has been very entertaining. In fact I only signed up for Netflix to see this, though am particularly enjoying other sports documentaries on there e.g Sunderland Till I Die, even though I am not really a fan of soccer.

But even though I am appreciative of the Last Dance being there rather than not existing at all, Jordan as executive producer must have skewed the content.

When I realised that Jordan was an executive producer it made me question how much clips of Sam Smith were edited for the series. The Jordan Rules was a shocking read at the time it was published, puncturing the public image of Jordan to the extent that I recall Sam Smith becoming a pariah reporter for the Bulls.

In addition to the clips of Smith, how accurately have the likes of Horace Grant/BJ Armstrong/Toni Kukoc been represented in the series?

This was only made because Lebron won in Cleveland. It has nothing to do with anything other than Jordan's ego, but did you really expect anything different?

Only Amaechi would have the nerve and stupidity to go on a programme and admit that