Somebody posted this on RealGm and it was a real treat to watch. Lawdy Jesus, that guy had some game. [video=youtube;f4gigN2zMU4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4gigN2zMU4[/video]
I know, right. It's bizarre watching those old Bulls clips. Their defense was silly. These are my two favorite vids: [video=youtube;g1YchiFv-5M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1YchiFv-5M[/video] [video=youtube;N9vFHYVXtRk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9vFHYVXtRk[/video]
Pippen WAS a better defender. He had Plastic Man arms that stretched the length of the court. I do like the MJ video though because so much emphasis is put on His Airness and his slashing, dunking and scoring and it is refreshing to see emphasis put on the fact that the dude was a True Doberman on defense.
"ball ball ball ball, mine" in MJ's case (and in very few others') was one of the keys to making him the GOAT, on both sides of the game.
On a lot of those plays, it seemed like Pip and Jordan would take two dribbles to go the length of the court and dunk. Amazing athletes and huge.
The thing that freaks me out is, with both Jordan and Pippen, on over half those highlights they were trailing the plays. It's like they were moving at double speed while the rest of the clip is progressing as usual. It's especially strange when the offensive player is in the air already. How can you catch up to a player who has already jumped? Is that even possible?
One of my favorite facts that illustrates how ridiculously good the 95-96 Bulls were is that Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman were all first-team All-NBA defense that year. That's just sick.
SST: Watching your second video, it still brings a smile to my face with how graceful Scottie Pippen was on the court. His game had so much style.
Steals are great, but my favorite clip from that second video is the third cutaway with Pippen guarding the Knick gaurd (how is that?) the full length of the court. It's just crippling. I remember Jordan doing that in a playoff series too (I think it was against Starks.) If your point guard can't even bring the ball up the court . . .
I don't know about that. Pippen was more consistently hounding between the two after he emerged. But it seemed like it was part of the Bulls strategy to hold back MJ so he had enough O in the fourth Q.
Some day I'd like to study the relationship with stardom, the refs and defense, especially with the rule interpretations we have now. You especially see in the MJ videos just how much he pushed and handchecked and generally knocked guys around. Today if the average good perimeter defender did that, he'd foul out in 2 minutes. Which is why perimeter defense across the board ain't what it used to be. And neither are today's stars... Remember that MJ was that good offensively with people doing it to him as well. But anyway, where would Lebron, for example, get if he played D like that? Would he foul out or would the rules regime suddenly change again?
