Horace Grant: Michael Jordan’s Bulls top LeBron James’ Heat
The debate over who was the better player between Michael Jordan and LeBron James is already a hotly contested debate among NBA fans, with young fans being a prisoner of the moment while smart fans know full well that Jordan is the best to ever play the game.
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However, the question over whether Jordan’s teams with the Chicago Bulls that won two separate three-peats in the 90s makes for a good conversation with the Miami Heat teams over the last four years after advancing the the NBA Finals for the fourth straight year. Not since the Boston Celtics in the mid-80s have we seen a team in the Finals four consecutive years.
Jordan’s teams never accomplished that feat, although the Eastern Conference was much deeper and stronger at the top than it has been in the new millennium. I think we can all agree that the Western Conference has been the dominant conference for the better part of the last 15 years.
Horace Grant, one of Jordan’s former teammates on the Bulls, believes those Bulls teams were much better than the Heat teams we’ve witnessed the last four seasons.
"“The Heat wouldn’t have had a chance,” Grant said Tuesday on WSCR-AM in Chicago via ESPN.com. “We would have locked them up. We would have locked them up. Especially with the rules today, Michael would have had a field day.”"
The primary rule Grant refers to is the hand-checking rule that limits what a defender can do opposed to his era that had players banging, clutching and grabbing one another in an era that featured much more defense being played.
The Heat have failed on the biggest stage, losing to the Dallas Mavericks three seasons ago, the second Finals loss for James, and that’s one huge reason why those who want to say James and the Heat are better than Jordan and the Bulls falls flat.
Jordan is a perfect 6-0 in the Finals with six Finals MVP trophies.
Who do you think would win in a mythical best-of-seven game series: The Jordan Bulls or the LeBron Heat?
Sound off in the comments section below.
I have the Bulls winning in six games with Scottie Pippen slowing James down just enough and Jordan averaging more than 32 points per game.