Don't judge T-Mac, Dirk just yet

[jthig32]

This is a few days old, but I haven't seen it posted:

Don't judge T-Mac, Dirk just yet


posted: Monday, May 7, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry
filed under: NBA

Some thoughts after watching Dirk and T-Mac fail to get their clubs out of the first round of the playoffs:


Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time and personally, my favorite player ever. But the unprecedented and unique greatness of His Airness has spoiled us -- to the point where we may be judging some of today's individual stars too harshly.

Because Jordan won six titles without a great supporting cast (and no form of revisionist history will convince me that he had a great supporting cast), we expect every "true superstar" to be able to carry his team to huge success virtually by himself.

If a player doesn't do that, we say he lacks heart, doesn't have the "killer instinct" and actually question how good he is. But anyone judged by the "Jordan scale" will come up short.

The failure of any one player -- both currently and historically -- to dominate as Jordan did should remind us of just how incredibly great the original 23 was. He truly was one of a kind.

I don't mean to belittle Scottie Pippen, who developed into a great player, but I believe Pippen's growth into a star was a direct result of learning from Jordan, emulating Jordan, and being pushed to his personal limit by Jordan -- not to mention playing beside Jordan. If Scottie goes to another team instead of the Bulls, I don't think he becomes the player he did.

Other than Dennis Rodman, none of Jordan's teammates -- including Pippen outside of the 1993-94 season -- had any notable individual success without MJ.

Let's review some of the all-time greats.

The only title of Oscar Robertson's 14-year career came with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971. In his 10 seasons without Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar got out of the first round a grand total of two times.

Jerry West reached the Finals seemingly every year of his career, but despite playing most of his career with Elgin Baylor, he never won it all without Wilt Chamberlain. And in five years with Wilt, the Logo only won the title once.

Julius "Dr. J" Erving's Philly 76ers blew a 2-0 lead in the 1977 Finals and lost four straight to Portland -- just like the Mavericks did a year ago against Miami.

And, in 1980, Doc and the Sixers lost Game 6 of the Finals to a Lakers team that had lost MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to injury. A rookie, should-be-junior-in-college by the name of Magic Johnson outplayed Doc and crew in that one.

I'm quite sure Doc would be getting plastered by the media if those two scenarios happened today.

Doc's only title came when Moses Malone joined him in Philly in 1983.

Speaking of Magic, he never won it all without Kareem. And for many years, he had another Top 50 all-time player in James Worthy, not to mention Michael Cooper, Jamaal Wilkes, Byron Scott and a slew of other studs.

Larry Bird never won it all without Top 50 teammates Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, and over the years, he had great teammates like Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, Bill Walton and others. And in Bird's first title in 1981, Cedric Maxwell, not Bird, was the Finals' MVP.

Kobe's never been out of the first round without Shaq.

Maybe we should consider those facts before we make career-defining declarations on Dirk and T-Mac right now.

I'm not saying Dirk didn't melt like a creamsicle on a charcoal grill against the Warriors -- he did -- but his supporting cast leaves something to be desired. Where's his Top 50 teammate? His true point guard? His low-post scorer?

And I'm not saying that T-Mac shouldn't take some heat, but basketball is a five-player game, not a two-player game. And Utah's five of Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Andrei Kirilenko and Derek Fisher is better than Houston's five of T-Mac, Yao, Shane Battier, Rafer Alston and Chuck Hayes.

But the fact that Dirk and T-Mac need other all-NBA caliber players next to them to win a title only makes them like most superstars -- in fact, just about all superstars -- not named MJ (Rick Barry led Golden State to a title in 1975 without a lot of help, but the Warriors were nowhere near being a dynasty).

Here's what an executive from another team told me when asked where Dallas should go from here:

"You can't blow it up," he said. "To me, this is part of that pain you have to go through when you're trying to win a championship. If I'm them I go get a low-post scorer and stop there. They have the pieces to get it done. They just need something inside."

I agree, but I'd also try to get a point guard if possible. Here are the guys I think the Mavericks should look into getting:

Jermaine O'Neal, Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups.

Obviously, they don't need both Kidd and Billups, but they should see if they can get one of them.
This has been somewhat of a ramble, but hey, it's a blog.

[jayC]

T-Mac has never gotten his teams out of the first round. Dirk has just last year he made clutch shots in game seven of the Western Conference Finals. We ran into a bad matchup with Golden St.

Dirk is to blame, but so is the lack of a defender fon Baron Davis. Davis shot fifty five percent from the field. The Mavericks have had trouble containing big scoring point guards. The Mavericks lack of a big off guard cost them the series.

[KingCrunch]

MJ did not have a good supporting cast??? What???? Pippen (Hall of Famer), Harper (former 20 PpG-Player), Rodman (The crazy body you gotta have), Kerr/Paxson/Hodges (deadly shooters you got to have), Longley/Cartwright (not the worst centers around), Horace Grant.... only the bench wasn't the best, but he had a good supporting cast!!!

No one will shoot his team to championship by himself, if it would be possible, Kobe would do it! The whole comparison is bad!

greets

[Stranger]

Good article. I like Chris Broussard.

[V2M]

Originally Posted by KingCrunch

MJ did not have a good supporting cast??? What???? Pippen (Hall of Famer), Harper (former 20 PpG-Player), Rodman (The crazy body you gotta have), Kerr/Paxson/Hodges (deadly shooters you got to have), Longley/Cartwright (not the worst centers around), Horace Grant.... only the bench wasn't the best, but he had a good supporting cast!!!

No one will shoot his team to championship by himself, if it would be possible, Kobe would do it! The whole comparison is bad!

greets

Toni Kukoc

[antoinewalker]

Originally Posted by KingCrunch

MJ did not have a good supporting cast??? What???? Pippen (Hall of Famer), Harper (former 20 PpG-Player), Rodman (The crazy body you gotta have), Kerr/Paxson/Hodges (deadly shooters you got to have), Longley/Cartwright (not the worst centers around), Horace Grant.... only the bench wasn't the best, but he had a good supporting cast!!!

No one will shoot his team to championship by himself, if it would be possible, Kobe would do it! The whole comparison is bad!

greets

don't forget their twin towers of luc longley and bill wennington!