Do they move ahead of Jordan’s Bulls into 3rd place on the Alltime NBA Dynasties list, putting them behind the George Mikan led Minneapolis Lakers and the Bill Russell led Boston Celtics?
It is so difficult and sometimes not meaningful to compare teams of different eras, but if you’re going to compare the Lakers to the Bulls, IMHO you have to compare the Lakers titles to the Bulls six in eight years. I cannot see the Lakers matching that feat: I can’t see Shaq still playing ball in five years and no one coming down the pike to replace him, either.
I also believe the league was better overall and the talent more evenly distributed the last three years the Bulls were kings, with more really strong teams than today. NY Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Seattle Sonics, Utah Jazz, to name a few, were true and strong contenders, some pushing the Bulls near the limit despite their greatness.
With the exception of the series with the Kings last year, it seems that with the Lakers, it’s a walk in the park through the playoffs, which I believe is just as much a testament to weak competition as it is to the Lakers strengths.
Head to head Lakers vs Bulls you have some strange matchups. Shaq would be a big problem, giving Longley, Wennington and Rodman foul trouble. At the same time, I think Pippen and Kukoc would give Horry and Fox more than their moneysworth. I give Jordan the nod over Kobe and Ron Harper played for both teams. Bulls bench gets the nod over the Lakers late round draft choice nobodies. Could the Bulls many small advantages overcome Shaq’s huge advantage?
I don’t know.
IMHO Lakers chance at repeating this year is 70%
Depends on who they end up against. After the pathetic behavior of the refs last year, I expect it would take a miracle to make them NOT lose.
Kings and Lakers… I have no idea who’s gonna win, if the NBA lets it be a real game…
This Lakers team and any of Jordan’s Bulls teams would get their asses kicked by any of the Lakers or Celtics championship teams of the 80s. Back then, it took more than two or three good players to win an NBA title.
I have to agree with Elwood, except the 80s Lakers were better than the 80s Celtics.