April 18, 2003
BASKETBALL: Retrospect
Bill Simmons argues that it's time to break up Kobe & Shaq. One quibble: Simmons says that "[u]nlike other NBA dynasties, these guys always seem vulnerable . . ." Maybe they seem invulnerable in retrospect, but I always though Jordan's Bulls could be taken, and they often escaped serieses with the Knicks, in particular, by the skin of their teeth. Remember: this team had a committee of mediocre point guards and another committee of mediocre centers; after Horace Grant left, they had a power forward who scored 5 points a game and was clinically insane, plus Scottie Pippen was never exactly Mister Big Game. The Bulls' advantages, of course, each time outweighed those flaws, but you can't tell me they were never in trouble.