It’s time to play the most popular game of the NBA offseason: Could this team have won a hypothetical game against Michael Jordan’s Bulls?
Draymond Green posted on Twitter, wondering how the dominant 2017 Golden State Warriors would have handled MJ, and Kevin Durant weighed in. Now, former Warriors coach Mark Jackson is offering thoughts on a new theoretical query.
What would have happened, Jackson wonders, if the Knicks had not traded him to the Clippers in 1993? The point guard was moved in exchange for another player who would later become an NBA head coach, Doc Rivers.
Jackson recently reflected on the life-changing transaction (via SNY):
“Well I do believe that we win a championship,” said Jackson, who was traded to the Clippers in a three-team deal that sent Doc Rivers and Charles Smith to New York in 1993. “We had a great team, we had a process moving along, we advanced. We had the ultimate champs on the ropes. So I believe we win a championship if that team stays together. But I’m sure if you ask the opposition, they believe they win anyway.”
He continued:
“I believe if we stay together, we beat (Jordan and the Bulls). We were up in the fourth quarter of a Game 7, with Michael Jordan on the team. So I’m not saying something that’s asinine,” Jackson said. “They were an all-time great team and they had an all-time great player. But I believe we had a chance to beat him and I think that if we stayed together we would have.”
Based on win shares, Jackson immediately had his career-best campaign with the Clippers in 1992-93. He scored 14.4 points per game, the highest he ever recorded outside his sole All-Star season in 1988-89.
Meanwhile, Rivers’ scoring averages steadily decreased during the remaining seasons of his professional career after the transaction.
The Knicks made it to the Eastern Conference Finals and lost to the Bulls in 1993. Although they made it to the NBA Finals in 1994, the team was defeated by Mark Jackson’s Pacers in the 1995 Conference Semifinals.
New York last won an NBA title in 1973, nearly fifty years ago.
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