By Louis Anderson-Rich and Stephen Foote
The Golden State Warriors are on track to beat one of the most formidable records in NBA history if they beat the Memphis Grizzlies today.
They currently hold a 72-9 regular season record with one game remaining. A win would launch them into the record books while a loss would leave them equal with a team considered the greatest ever by many in the basketball community - the 1995/96 Chicago Bulls.
Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson lead the team to that phenomenal mark as well as six championship rings in one of the most dominant eras in American sport.
So, who's the better team? Newshub reporters Louis Anderson-Rich and Stephen Foote debate.
Louis: Alright, Stephen, let's start chronologically. You were 15-years-old when MJ's Bulls claimed their fourth NBA title whereas I was six. Run me through their greatness first-hand.
Stephen: Obviously pre-digital age NBA fandom was an entirely different beast, but even back then it was clear that Michael Jordan and the Bulls completely transcended basketball and even sport itself.
MJ was one of the most recognisable people on the planet, returning for his first full season following his infamous baseball hiatus. He'd made a mid-season comeback the previous year but was bundled out of the playoffs in unceremonious fashion by the Shaq/Hardaway-led Magic. Vengeance was on his mind, and nobody carried a grudge like Jordan.
They'd added human sideshow/pogo-stick in Dennis Rodman, Euro-star Toni Kukoc, former All-Star Ron Harper and a raft of role players to a squad already boasting arguably the second-best player in the league in Scottie Pippen. The eyes of the sporting world were well and truly fixated on this squad.
And they only responded with the greatest season of all time.
What, if anything, do you recall about that era? Are you simply a 'prisoner of the moment' here?
Louis: Good point, pre-digital certainly adds to the mystique and the legend but does it make them a better basketball team? I think I have to disagree.
Fresh off their first title last year, the Warriors have obliterated their opponents this season. Like, Jonah Lomu over Mike Catt steamrolled them all. Stephen Curry is shooting six more points per game than last season, they kicked off with a 24-game win streak and that's without their head coach! Luke Walton might be good but it was the team, as the most cohesive unit witnessed in the NBA, that really kept the train rolling.
Look, I remember Space Jam. I remember, Jordan, he was a phenomenon and no doubt he is the GOAT but I think we'll remember this Warriors team as a TEAM, a perfect convergence of movement, skill and tactics.
Stephen: First of all, Space Jam was pure trash (yeah, I said it), and secondly your need to employ rugby analogies is highly concerning.
Obviously the Jordan factor is enormous, but you talk about this version of Jordan as if he were the run-and-gun MJ of the late 80s.
This Jordan was merely one cog, albeit the most crucial one, in the beautifully complex machine that was The Triangle offence, assistant coach Tex Winter’s brainchild which formed the beating heart of these Bulls and enabled them to steamroll through the league.
All of this while hand-checking was still legal? Defences today would crumble. What happened to all the enforcers?
Louis: I can't believe how disappointed I am in you for saying that... Space Jam is a cultural touchstone of an entire generation!
Look, man, I understand that. I understand the mythic triangle. I understand that Phil Jackson won 11 rings using it but I watch the Knicks! Regularly! Because I hate myself as a person! And I can tell you with some emphasis that the triangle doesn't work in the modern NBA unless you have the next Jordan. The NBA has evolved into a harder, smarter beast and the Warriors have clocked the game. They've unlocked Doctor B in Tekken 3, they've thrown the ring in the fires of Mt Doom, they figured out the plot to Lost!
And hand-checking? Who cares when you're shooting over 60 percent from just over half-court a la Stephen Curry.
Stephen: Our fatal error here, Louis, is assuming the triangle doesn’t work because your Knicks couldn’t run it. The fact is, you need players who are smart and savvy enough, and who understand their roles to the umpteenth to make it really hum which is where the composition of these Bulls comes into play. Not Langston Galloway and the corpse of Sasha Vujacic.
I'll even give you this much, being the generous man that I am and for argument's sake, let's say the respective offensive brilliance of Curry and Jordan cancels each other out. Who else is going to score for these Warriors and how?
While the default crutch in this debate is to cite the mere presence of Jordan, the true X-factor here is the Bulls' defence. Suffocating isn't even the word, this team strangled the will to live out of teams on the defensive end possession after possession. The Warriors can turn it on in spurts, but ultimately they're looking to out-gun you.
No way they're getting away with that when they're faced with the lock-down perimeter juggernauts of Harper, Jordan, and possibly the best wing defender of all time - Scottie Pippen.
I haven't even even mentioned Dennis Rodman. The things he'd do to Draymond Green, it makes me shudder. He'd completely nullify his impact, and quite possibly leave him severely emotionally traumatised.
Have I convinced you yet?
Louis: This is you right now, did you know that?
Stephen: Ha! I've earned the right to shake my fist recklessly, young man.
Louis: Ok maybe the Knicks aren't the greatest example of that, or Kurt Rambis' Timberwolves who tried and failed to do the same thing miserably. The Triangle needs a Kobe or a Jordan to look good and your team has that. It has the greatest and, you know what, I love your answer. You've painted a very good picture my friend.
BUT
Why have the Warriors lit up the league and WILL (yeah, I said it) go on to break the Bulls record? Don't give me “the league was stronger” trash because the NBA was at one of its most diluted points being the first season of the Vancouver Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors, plus the Timberwolves who had come into the league only two years before.
Today, the Warriors have Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant on the Thunder, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul on the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge on the Spurs, Marc Gasol, James Harden, Anthony Davis and, er, that's only the Western Conference. The Warriors have made all these teams look like children at regular intervals throughout the season. They are changing the way the game of basketball is played and taking it into the future. They would out-gun the Bulls because their scoring comes from anywhere and everywhere.
Stephen: Hey, I have zero doubt that the Warriors will crush the Grizzlies to claim the record but that's hardly proof that they’re the better team. That's why we're having this discussion isn't it?
You're really going to just list a bunch of All-Stars? The 1996 Bulls had to contend with perhaps the most dominant force in NBA history in Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and your mate Patrick damn Ewing, the pre-evolutionary Curry, Mr. Reggie Miller, Alonzo Mourning, the round mound of rebound Chuck Barkley, The Mailman Malone, these are all first ballot hall of famers on quality teams.
We'd also be remiss to mention the conductor of this Bulls symphony, Mr Phil Jackson. The purveyor of calm and mind-game extraordinaire, Warriors coach Steve Kerr is simply his disciple. The Zen-master doesn't lose playoff series; I think we've come to learn that.
The Warriors are a joy to watch and I've appreciated everything they've done this season, it's been historic and they deserve this record.
But in a playoff series, Bulls in six games. 1996 and 2016 rules. And one of those losses is a product of at least one night of over-indulgence by Jordan and Rodman.
Louis: So, an incredible, season-long, ground-breaking, historical record a good team makes not?
I guess give it 20 years and the heart-warming effects of nostalgia will give similar credence to names like Bogut, Barnes and Barbosa. Only then will you and I will feel the same way.
Stephen: Don't undermine this debate with the sentimentality card, Louis. You're better than that.
Like I said, incredible team that deserves the record just not better than the most incredible team of all time.
Did I mention how scary a non-hand-checked Jordan would be? Goodness me….
Newshub.
