Being a better player? There absolutely is.
Lol, no there isn't.
They're in the upper echelons, but until either of them wins a World Cup then they're not in the same conversation as Pele or Maradona, or even Zidane or Beckenbauer.
i am honestly not quite sure of what i may have said to you in the past with regards to this, but the sw0rdz of today is in complete agreement with that statement. save for ronaldo's euro, the international record for either is pretty disgraceful.
it's why i feel a player like mbappe, who has already won a WC starting for france at a very tender age, has the potential to surpass both.
It's Messi's fault Gonzalo Higuiain couldn't hit water if he fell out of a fuckin boat.
I love Mbappe as a player and he had a hell of a tournament, but he isn't surpassing excrement as long as he stays in the relative comfort of Ligue 1.
Jerry Krause was a genius. Jerry Krause was an idiot.
Easily the most overhyped/overplayed part of the mini-series, probably because Jordan had a level of editorial control and still has positive relationships with Reinsdorf and Phil and we all know his discontent with Crumbs, which it should be noted was born out of a move that wound up benefiting the team immensely. I love Charles Oakley as a player. Bill Cartwright was essential to the first three-peat and to say Krause was wrong for making that move, especially with the benefit of hindsight is the height of stupidity.
Every year after 95 Phil would squawk through the media about how this is it, this is his last year, he can't motivate the team anymore, etc etc etc. Jerry literally changed the supporting cast inside of three years from the 93 team to 96, part of the motivation being to placate Phil. Even without Krause's absurd "I don't give a freak if its 82-0, you're out" if Phil wanted to come back, he'd have come back. He didn't want to and I do think part of his motivation for saying no is because either way even with Phil and MJ in tow, Reinsdorf was not spending the $$$ to bring back Pippen who was obviously a very necessary component to their success, and someone who was irreplaceable to that team. Jordan himself naively (and this may be an extension into why he's such a failure as a basketball executive) just blindly assumes at the end that Pippen would've come back on a one year deal to run it again for 7. No fuckin way. Pip was tired of being underpaid, wanted locked in, long-term security (which was his motivation of running into that initial shitty contract to begin with) and though he'd never admit it, definitely at that point seemed tired of being second fiddle. excrement he joined a ready made Rockets team with two alpha's and rather than play within their game and play complementary basketball, by all accounts tried to be "the man" and it didn't work.
In short, Krause's less than congenial attitude certainly didn't help matters (how he could ever think that inviting the entire organization but Phil to his step-daughters wedding is in any way appropriate or becoming of his position is beyond me), but if Reinsdorf wanted to spend the money (even in the documentary he blames the rising salaries of guys like Ron Harper as an example of why the team was going to change...Harper wasn't a free agent, played on that God awful team with the likes of Herschey Hawkins and Dickey Simpkins the next year and then got freaking released only to go to the Lakers and win another ring), convinces Phil he's willing to cut a check to bring everyone back and that he'll handle the fallout with Krause, who knows? Maybe Phil comes back, and if Phil comes back I'm relatively confident Jordan comes back. At the same time, its easy for Michael to say he wanted to chase number 7 now some 20 years later when at the time in 98 he's telling Ahmad Rashad in a car that not only is he done, but he won't miss it.
Touching back on Reinsdorf, the idea that he knew Scottie's motivation for entering into that contract, saw how vital he was to the team, saw how much revenue he was bringing in, saw how underpaid he was relative to a role-player in the NBA by the middle of the contract, nevermind a top 5 player in the league and refused to take care of him is exactly why this lover of the older lady would be nothing but James Dolan central had the Blazers not taken Sam Bowie. He's not quite Wilpon-esque in his quest to not spend, but he's close. How've the Bulls been since Jordan left? Krause actually had some really good drafts but was too busy searching for the quick fix as opposed to letting his young talent breath (which is how you get yourself involved into trading Ron Artest and Brad Miller for a faded Jalen Rose), and Gar-Pax lucked into Derrick Rose and trade-raped the Knicks twice only to pee one of those selections away on Tyrus Thomas instead of LaMarcus Aldrige (which got an immediate seal of approval from that douchebag Colin Cowherd so you know he's an idiot), and have their luck run out on D-Rose one fateful and unfortunate playoff game against Philadelphia. They haven't been able to parlay their status as the team of the 90's, or keep themselves in the rarified air of franchises like the Celtics or Lakers because it starts at the top.
As a Bulls fan it pains me to make this one final point, and I still wouldn't bet against Jordan...but that 99 Spurs team was a HORRIBLE matchup for the Bulls. You think the 98 Pacers were bullies inside and presented a matchup problem with their size? Ric Smits was very effective for the Pacers in that 98 ECF, I don't even want to think about a very faded 37 year old Rodman coming off off a half a season due to a lockout as the best shot at neutralizing San Antonios twin towers along the glass. Yikes.
