The SPURS were better than any team MJ or Kobe beat

[gpm1976]

All three of Jordan's opponents during the 2nd 3-peat won 60+ regular season games. Phoenix was a 60+ win team. So, four of the six teams MJ faced were 60+ regular season win teams. Not exactly garbage competition.

If you want to talk about garbage competition, look no further than what the Spurs faced. The Knicks were an 8th seed. The Nets won 49 games. Detroit won 54 games. Cleveland won 50 games. Miami won 54 games. The Spurs titles are vastly overrated right?

A championship is still not easy to come by, but your point is very valid. What really gets me is the people who claim that either of these teams(miami or SA) would easily beat any one of those Jordan/Bulls champ. teams... and their reasoning: The Bulls continued to win every year, so therefore the competition back then must not have been any good.

 

[Inimical]

That Seattle team that lost to the Bulls was very good. Payton and Kemp were in their primes. They had one of the best defenses in the league and a very good offense. I wouldn't count them out against the '14 Spurs.

Thats just the thing, we could go on and on.....ugh.

 

[Inimical]

A championship is still not easy to come by, but your point is very valid. What really gets me is the people who claim that either of these teams(miami or SA) would easily beat any one of those Jordan/Bulls champ. teams... and their reasoning: The Bulls continued to win every year, so therefore the competition back then must not have been any good.

.

 

[True Lakers Fan]

Miami fans are still in shock and denial. The fact of the matter is that the Heat was not nearly as good as they thought. If they had been as good as they thought - then The Spurs would not have been able to beat the living shit out of those pathetic losers. Now please get over it already - no one in here gives a crap about your stupid Heat team. In fact we are all still celebrating and partying over the Heat's loss - It was just a wonderful and beautiful thing to see

 

[Shoveyjoe]

Miami fans are still in shock and denial. The fact of the matter is that the Heat was not nearly as good as they thought. If they had been as good as they thought - then The Spurs would not have been able to beat the living shit out of those pathetic losers. Now please get over it already - no one in here gives a crap about your stupid Heat team. In fact we are all still celebrating and partying over the Heat's loss - It was just a wonderful and beautiful thing to see

How sad that you would still be celebrating some other teams accomplishment. Hate like that is pathetic.

 

[Jims_Doors]

All three of Jordan's opponents during the 2nd 3-peat won 60+ regular season games. Phoenix was a 60+ win team. So, four of the six teams MJ faced were 60+ regular season win teams. Not exactly garbage competition.

If you want to talk about garbage competition, look no further than what the Spurs faced. The Knicks were an 8th seed. The Nets won 49 games. Detroit won 54 games. Cleveland won 50 games. Miami won 54 games. The Spurs titles are vastly overrated right?

SOS (strength of schedule) adds a little to the story when talking about those 4 opponents Chicago faced.

The Sonics were 28th out of 29 teams that year in the regular season. Ironically Chicago had the easiest regular season schedule that same year. They were 29th. Look at stats where it says " team miscellaneous"
1995-96 Seattle SuperSonics Roster and Stats | Basketball-Reference.com
1995-96 Chicago Bulls Roster and Stats | Basketball-Reference.com

The following year Utah had the easiest schedule ranked 29th
1996-97 Utah Jazz Roster and Stats | Basketball-Reference.com

1998 Utah had the 3rd easiest ranked 27th.
1997-98 Utah Jazz Roster and Stats | Basketball-Reference.com

The Suns in 1992 -93 had the 22nd easiest out of 27 teams.
1992-93 Phoenix Suns Roster and Stats | Basketball-Reference.com

Now I'm not taking anything away from the teams that the Bulls beat. They were very good teams. But their regular season record is a little inflated due to SOS.

Plus what hasn't been mentioned is that the 4th and 5th Chicago title runs, that was when the NBA had shortened the 3pt line. Jordan was a career mid 20's 3pt shooter but his first full season, the year they went 72-10, MJ shot in the low 40's from 3. (the links show the Bulls as a team shot 40% that season from 3). It was before their 6th attempt at a title that the NBA moved the line back to where it originally was. MJ shot 24% that year.

I'm sure some of today's teams would thrive on the closer 3pt line. Especially the Spurs if they could have it for 3 straight seasons (the amount of years the NBA moved it closer.)