Bleacher Report Top 100: 12be becomes 11be

[3ba11]

Like I said until he effed around and finished 3rd place in the mvp vote over most of those guys.....thats when he started being recognized as one of the best in the world and Mj came back to play with an mvp candidate.....imagine that.

MVP voting has never been a player ranking - it's based on surprise factor, so tons of bums got 3rd like Blake Griffin or PG3... The Bulls were never a big story in 94' because everyone knew the Bulls were enjoying a honeymoon period and a bubble that would burst

At no point in the 90's did anyone think he was anywhere near real franchise players like Ewing, Drexler, Barkley, Malone, etc

Pippen choked in the playoffs and was outplayed by Ewing, or saw teammates lead the BPM and win share in the playoffs... It was extremely common for people to comment on Pippen and say he's big trash - it was standard for people to talk this way about Pippen - no one thought he was anywhere near Ewing, Drexler, Malone, Barkley, etc... You would've been laughed at for making those claims... it's like saying Shawn Marion is on the level of Kobe, Lebron and Duncan... Completely absurd.

[mr4speed]

Correction, he orchestrated alot of chips, on a stacked roster.....in an era of stacked rosters. Magic is the ultimate floor general, he couldn't shoot.....until you needed a big bucket. He played average defense.....so did Bird. The Lakers dont win a single one without Magic, He was regarded higher than Mike for most of Mjs career, let that sink in. Magic is actually the origin of why Mikes 6 rings was supposed to be a big deal. Time does a funny thing to peoples views of the game.

Until you needed a big bucket?? Magic in his own book titled "Touch" on pages 74-76 admits to being afraid to take the last shot of the game and this was after the 84 Finals which was Magic's 5th season. Where are the game winners from Magic before the 86-87 season? In 1981 vs Houston in the playoffs in the Forum in the deciding game, Magic's last shot was an airball. In the 1983 Finals vs the Sixers Magic shot 40.3% and set a then NBA Finals record with 24 turnovers for 4 games. To show Magic's lack of range in his first 6 years of shooting 3 pointers, Magic was 29 made of 164 shots = 17.68%. Yes, Magic got much better at shooting as his career developed but lets not get carried away. And Magic regarded as higher than Jordan for most of Jordan's career?? That was not the case at all at least in my circles. Bird was a better defender than Magic and Bird was a more complete player than Magic IMO and the gap here between the two players is too big. Magic's defensive weakness IMO must move him down this list, or must elevate Bird up the list.