03-17-2025, 11:47 AM
(03-15-2025, 07:59 PM)F Gump Wrote: May be true about "most franchises" but in the NBA narrative, NBA history and glory is indeed about titles won. Luka will either win multiple titles, or he will be forever seen as a ball-dominating high-scoring ticket-selling guy who wasn't good enough to win titles. Nothing more than the next James Harden, so to speak.
It also needs to be mentioned that a 5-man team typically can do things a 1-man 1-way stat machine cannot. And the stats have to be sacrificed to a great degree, in order to feed the rest of the team so that big winning is possible. Even Jordan in his early years, doing things no one could match, wasn't good enough to win big until he learned to play within team.
The teams he had to play with was big, too. Add Pippen, a second star, plus guys like Grant, Cartwright, Rodman, Kerr, Paxton, Armstrong, Hodges, Kukoc, etc. They were good players that had a role that fit with Jordan and they played it to a tee. Before , they were a lot like the Mavs, had some good players that were ill-fitting with the superstar. Once the right players were in place, the team looked a lot better. Mention Luc Longley and how many people are going to say 'who' vs. 3x Bulls' championship center?