BradleyBrave
New member
No. Like Lakeview and several others said, MJ did whatever it took to win. Perhaps early on in his NBA career he looked like a me-first player, but in his college days he was a 'system' player at UNC (MJ has said as much in interviews, and has always talked highly of the Dean Smith 'system', which was designed for no one to average more than 15 ppg or so). As MJ matured in the NBA and the Bulls acquired more capable role players, MJ began trusting them and relying on them. Case in point - Jordan deferring to John Paxson in Game 5 in '91, John Paxson taking the game winning shot in '93 (Jordan was decoy), and Steve Kerr winning a game in the Finals in '97 (Jordan dished from a double-team).
Also, as others have said, Michael Jordan was as fundamentally sound as anyone in the league. He was a tireless worker in practice (did you hear that Allen Iverson?) and the offseason, and continued to develop his game from the second he came to UNC until he retired from the Wizards. He couldn't shoot outside of 15 feet when he was drafted, and was a very good 3-point shooter by the time he retired. His defensive desire and ability remain unmatched today. Jordan was an all-league defensive player
nearly every year of his career, and even won a Defensive POY award. The 'And 1' generation doesn't know what defense means.
If anyone from the Jordan era would be to blame for the degredation of team basketball and the elevation of the 'And 1' style, I think it would be Nike and the NBA. Nike made 'Air' Jordan and glorified dunking above all other aspects of the game. The NBA has their rules designed to highlight the player and not the team, and markets individual stars rather than teams. IMO Allen Iverson would be the poster child of this generation, not Michael Jordan.
