[Max Kellerman] Hakeem needed Jordan to retire to win 2 rings

Shaq beat Jordan in 1995. Hakeem beat Shaq.

End of story.

 

ha, it's more than rings but i see what you did there. unless you're trying to say hakeem > mj. are you? hmm...

 

we'll never know for sure if we would have beaten bulls in the finals. however, i don't think it's a stretch to say avoiding the bulls in the finals didn't hurt. avoiding the GOAT can never hurt. right?

 

close thread //

 

Wannabe Skip Bayless who probably doesn't even believe the BS he says. It's a work!

 

True, BUT the Rockets were a BAD matchup for the Bulls, sweeping them in the years prior to Jordan's retirement. The talking heads remain blissfully ignorant of this, as they do of most facts. Nobody to match up with Hakeem, and Maxwell did as well as anybody guarding Jordan. At the very least, a Bulls Rockets final in those years would have been epic, and one can't just assume the Bulls would have won.

 

this is @tinman 's argument about Hakeem versus Harden . . . 2 rings > zero rings. sad but true.

 

MJ giving the ultimate respect to Hakeem. He knew what he was up against. I saw MJ saying on TV during a Bulls game that I'm no longer the number 1, Hakeem is the number 1. I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

 

Speaking out his ass. Someone ask Vernon Maxwell if we would have beat Jordans Bulls in the finals.

 

The REAL math:

Jordan misses entire season = Dream 1, MJ 0
Jordan returns for 17 games and a great playoffs in which he failed to get his guys past a young Magic team: Dream 2, MJ 0

 

To be fair, the 1957-69 Celtics won 13 out of 15, including 8 in a row from '59-67.

 

A really excellent post, Vin2k2. None of it is new, but thanks anyway. It seems like we have to have this absurd "discussion" at least once a year, if not more, so I'll toss in my 2 cents again. Jordan himself didn't want to face Hakeem in the Finals if he didn't have to. I also don't recall the man saying that he would have won 2 more championships had he not run away from the NBA for one season and part of another (people tend to forget the "part of another," as if Michael didn't return for 17 regular season games, playing well enough to score 55 in one regular season game, and the Bulls got eliminated in the semi-finals).

Jordan may have liked to gamble, but he would just as soon have not gambled in the Finals against Hakeem and the Rockets, and essentially admitted as much. I respect Jordan for that. What I don't get is why some go out of their way to disrespect Hakeem and the Rockets. Ask any other team in the league if they would like to have our 2 hard won championships. You would get an easy answer. Hell yes! Ask Jordan if he wanted to face Dream in the Finals and you get another easy answer. It's in your post above for all to see if they open their eyes.

"WE'VE GOT NO ANSWER FOR THAT BIG MONSTER."

The link below is to an NBA.com retrospective of that partial season:

http://www.nba.com/jordan/mj9495.html

 

Too bad she's not leaving ABC/ESPN. She should go to Spurs Talk or Fox SW because she rides Spurs and Pops's nutz hard! Can't stand her bias and this fool has a nba vote!! I don't think nba votes are published but i guarantee you she will not vote for harden this year even though everyone agrees it's him.

 

Also true.

However, we swept the Spurs during the regular season in 2014. The Spurs went on to win the championship that year. We couldn't even beat the Spurs last year without Kawhi or Tony Parker and Duncan already retired. I doubt we could have beaten them in the playoffs in 2014 with Kawhi and a younger Tony Parker and a still productive Duncan, even though we swept them during the season.

Regardless, a Bulls/Rockets Finals would have been epic for sure. I wish we got to see that.

 

Yeah I saw that. He just slid it in there.

 

I believe woulda demolished the Bulls that 1st championship... Dream was hungry! 2nd one, we got hot at the right time so that woulda been interesting...

 

does @tinman hate harden?

 

The amount of threads made here for a BOXING ANALYST is absurd.

Clutchfans in 1999 > Clutchfans 2018

 

Jordan retired those two years because he was afraid of running into hakeem in the finals.

 

If the relevance of your post needs to be explained, maybe it's not worth posting.