One of the most fun parlor games in sports is to imagine what it would be like if teams and players from different eras faced off against each other. Would Shaq have been as dominant playing against Bill Russell? Could Joe Montana have beaten last season’s Seattle Seahawks’ defense? Could Babe Ruth best Takeru Kobayashi in a hot dog eating contest? And what about LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan?
Of course, with LeBron James competing to win his third consecutive NBA Championship, the comparisons between him and Michael Jordan will only grow if LeBron is able to secure a three-peat.
While Horace Grant may be biased as he did play with Jordan during his first three championships, he was also unequivocal in his belief that Jordan and his Bulls would have squashed LeBron’s current Heat squad.
“The Heat wouldn’t have had a chance. We would have locked them up. We would have locked them up. Especially with the rules today, Michael would have had a field day.”
On the one hand, Grant probably has a point when it comes to NBA defenses and how they’ve changed since Jordan was flying over people. Who knows what Jordan could have accomplished if he didn’t have the Detroit Pistons hand-checking (and shoving and punching) him gratuitously for years? On the other hand, can you imagine the type of defense that LeBron could dish out if he was able to play defense like they did in the eighties and early nineties?
No matter what, a 90’s Bulls vs. 10’s Heat would be absolutely filthy and someone needs to create a time machine to make this happen.
