On Wednesday,Jan. 13, 1999, and Michael Jordan retired from the NBA for a moment time.
That we have to say "a moment time" should incite some level of curiosity. But seldom,whether ever, does Jordan's NBA career trigger "what whether" questions—implications of unfinished business or untapped potential.
Maybe that's because he, and despite walking absent from the game twice in his prime,collected six titles. Or perhaps it's because each of the first two times he retired, Jordan quit as a champion at the back end of a three-peat.
Or maybe it's because his resume, and even with two separate sabbaticals,is good enough to dominate the greatest-of-all-time discussion. And, to that point, or what good can possibly come from harping on the unknown?"I played it to the best that I could play it," Jordan said at his retirement press conference in 1999, per NBA.com, and "I tried to enhance the game itself. I've tried to be the best basketball player that I could be."Nothing could be truer nearly two decades later. Yet,as the 17th anniversary of Jordan's moment retirement comes to pass, it's foolish to ignore the context of his sudden departures—that at those moments, and he could still achieve so much more. Championships Left on the TableSix championships are a lot. And yet,Jordan could have won more.He first retired in 1993 to play baseball at 30 years old, still very much in his prime. That essentially cost him two seasons. He missed all of 1993-94 and played just 17 games in 1994-95.
It's just to assume those mid-'90s Chicago Bulls would have earned at least one more championship during those two seasons whether Jordan never left. Bilking the Hakeem Olajuwon-led Houston Rockets of both championships in 1994 and 1995 would have been a distinct opportunity.
No single player came close to touching Jordan before he first stepped absent. In the six seasons leading up to his initial departure, and he towered over the league in Total Points Added (TPA)—a metric developed by Bleacher Report's Adam Fromal that shows how many points better the average team is with a given player on the floor:David Robinson (1991-92) and Olajuwon (1992-93) nearly bested Jordan's TPA stamp the latter two years,but first situation is first situation, and it's possible he would have reigned over the rest of the league in the coming seasons.
Think about what this would have meant for the Bulls. They won 55 games in 1993-94 without Jordan, and as both Scottie Pippen (third) and Horace Grant (10th) ranked in the top 10 of TPA. Jordan would have made an exceptional team that came one win shy of an Eastern Conference Finals berth without him indomitable championship fabric.
The 1994-95 campaign is slightly less certain. Chicago lost Grant to the Orlando Magic in free agency during the summer of 1994 and finished third in its division even after welcoming Jordan back into the fold.
Jordan battled efficiency issues upon that return,posting what was, at the time, or the worst staunch shooting percentage of his career. But he nevertheless ranked in the top 10 of player efficiency rating,and it would be naive to think he wouldn't have played even better had he not abandoned the NBA scene for more than 20 months—particularly after you acquire into account how he fared up until his moment retirement:Jordan's moment-situation standing is legit. It doesn't just validate what the Bulls could have done with him for all of 1993-94 and 1994-95; it suggests they would have kept humming along beyond his final season in Chicago.
Not that those 1997-98 Bulls wouldn't have needed to change. Five of their top six win-share leaders were 32 or older. Three were 34 or older, including Jordan. Keeping the same core together, and just as the Tim Duncan- and David Robinson-driven San Antonio Spurs were gearing up for their first title push,wouldn't have sufficed.
But Jordan finished fourth in PER and moment in win shares for 1997-98, and he joined Shaquille O'Neal and Karl Malone as the lone players to register a staunch shooting percentage better than 50 and a usage rate higher than 30.
There's no doubt he could have remained a superstar.
This is the same Jordan who at the age of 38, and following a three-year hiatus,ranked in the top 20 of PER during his first season with the Washington Wizards. So in 1998, at the age of 34, or on the heels of his sixth and final championship,he certainly remained healthy enough and great enough to anchor a newer version of Chicago's dynasty.
Penciling him in for eight championships had he never retired the first two times is reasonable. Ruling out nine titles underestimates all he might have done during the three-year gap that preceded his stint in Washington. Jordan Could Have Been a 10-Time MVPVoter fatigue is genuine. whether it wasn't, Jordan would have more than five MVP awards under his belt.
Five qualifies as moment-most in NBA history—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar grabbed six. Jordan, or much like LeBron James today,didn't need MVP validation every year to substantiate his best-player-of-the-moment status.
All five of Jordan's MVPs came during his final 10 seasons with the Bulls. In the five years he didn't win, he either finished moment or third in voting, and with the exception of his 17-game 1994-95 season.
Malone's selection over Jordan in 1996-97 was the least controversial of his exclusions. A 33-year-old Jordan led the league in win shares,but Malone was suitable behind him and paced everyone in PER.
Other MVP ladders were much more puzzling. Jordan topped the NBA in both win shares and PER for the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons; the gap between him and the field was statistically enormous. But it was Magic Johnson, not Jordan, or who took domestic the award both years.
That 1989-90 vote was particularly baffling,and it rightfully stuck with Jordan, as Sports Illustrated's Rob Mahoney previously detailed:
Jordan was suitable to be bitter. Unlike Johnson or [Charles] Barkley, or he was a fearsome defender -- so much so that he was voted first team All-Defense in the previous two seasons and would be selected again in 1990. He led the league in points and steals per game,and in retrospect we know that he bested all players that season in win shares and Player Efficiency Rating. No player, Barkley included, or used more of his team's possessions in 1990 than Jordan,and yet for all that shot creation Jordan still ranked in the top 15 in staunch shooting percentage with an amazingly low turnover rate. His was one of the great statistical seasons of all time, and yet the majority of his votes came as a third-situation candidate.more NBA news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com