Except the whole world? I don't know where you were when MJ retired after three titles, but CNN stopped programming to show the press conference, even in Europe. That was unprecedented then. Everyone was calling him the GOAT at that time. Besides pre-retirement Jordan was about 10 times better than the second three peat version. Two years off took a lot away from him from a physical standpoint. The guy murdering Portland and Phoenix was in a different league vs. the older MJ.
Let's try to stick to the facts when we make silly little arguments, shall we? Or is this the Trump era of arguing where you just make a blanket statement without any facts behind them?
During the 1988-1989 season, Bulls somehow got to the conference finals by beating two superior teams, the Cavs and the Knicks. They stole games one and three, the 3rd game Jordan scored the last 18-20 points when they came from behind, including the floating bankshot over both Rodman and Isiah. He had 46 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds and 5 steals in that game. His only bad game was game 5 in Detroit where they got blown out. Jordan shot 4 for 8 from the field and finished with 18 points. He still averaged 30+ for that series against a team that was basically only guarding him.
The next year Pistons beat the Bulls in seven games and went on to defend their title. Every game was won by the home team. Yet the Bulls were on their way to stealing game 1, where Jordan had 30 points in the first half. At the end of the half MJ was basically thrown to the ground by Salley, Rodman and Laimbeer and hurt his hip, and was limping the rest of the way and didn't do a thing. Dumars went off right after that and Pistons took the game. In games 3 and 4 when Bulls came back into the series, Jordan had 47 and 42. His lone bad game was game 2, where he was still suffering from the hip injury.
But yes, obviously he sucked. You are correct about one thing: Pistons did play defense. Unlike the layup line D you see in the current league.
