NBA great trashes superteam approach
RETIRED NBA legend Michael Jordan has warned that the “superteam” era will create a league with 28 “garbage” clubs that will struggle.
Jordan, who sparked the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles in the 1990s, addressed the topic in an interview with Cigar Aficionado magazine unveiled on Thursday on its website.
Jordan’s toughest talk was on the state of the NBA, where several teams have stockpiled talent to try to dethrone the reigning champion Golden State Warriors, who last season united stars Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry to form a dominant squad that claimed a second title in three seasons.
In the past few months, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder have added star talent to their rosters.
“I think it’s going to hurt the overall aspect of the league from a competitive standpoint,” Jordan told the maga- zine. “You’re going to have one or two teams that are going to be great and another 28 teams that are going to be garbage, or they are going to have a tough time surviving in the business environment.”
The 54-year-old also said he lacked the patience to be a coach, saying his biggest problem was the focus level of today’s players.
“For me to ask an individual to focus on the game the way I played would, in some ways, be unfair and if he didn’t do it, there’s no telling where my emotions would be,” Jordan told the magazine.
He compared his title total to the record 11 won by former Boston Celtic Bill Russell.
“I won six championships. Bill Russell won 11. Does that make Bill Russell better than me? Make me better than him?
“No, because when you try to compare different eras and equate who is better than the other, it’s an unfair parallel.”