Philippine Daily Inquirer

REPORT: JORDAN HITS SUPERTEAMS, SAYS FAD WILL CREATE 28 ‘GARBAGE’ TEAMS

- —AFP

NEW YORK— 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 Thursday on its website.

He also talked about his pal Tiger Woods, a 14-time major champion golfer struggling to return after multiple back operations, and said he himself might not have “survived in this Twitter time.”

Jordan’s toughest talk was on the state of the NBA, where several teams have stockpiled talent to try 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 magazine. “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.”

Jordan, 54, also said he lacks the patience to be a coach, saying his biggest problem is the focus level of today’s players.

Regarding Woods, whosemajor total ranks second to the 18 won by Jack Nicklaus, Jordan said the injured star is in a transition­al phase perhaps made more difficult by today’s social media.

“I don’t know if I could have survived in this Twitter time where you don’t have the privacy that you would want.”

Jordan would not be drawn into a comparison of Woods and Nicklaus in the Greatest of All Time debate.

“That’s more for stories and hype,” Jordan told the magazine. “Jack and Tiger never played against each other. They never played with the same equipment.”

Jordan moved the Nicklaus- Woods win argument to the NBA level, comparing his title total to the record 11 won by former Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell.

“Yeah, Jack has got 18 majors and Tiger has got 14. And that’s how people are judging certain things,” Jordan said. “I won 6 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, an unfair choice.”

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