Skip Bayless rips Julius Erving to shreds for leaving out Michael Jordan from his All-Time NBA First team; says he’s a grumpy old man.
Advertisement
Much can be said about whether the NBA is trending in the right direction in terms of the way the game is being played. Legends from the Michael Jordan and Julius Erving era of basketball swear by ‘old school defense’ and stars now believe the NBA is at a better place due to the analytical revolution and the spacing that’s been provided as every team is now equipped with shooters.
The aforementioned Julius Erving certainly isn’t bashful about his preferences when it comes to the talent distribution of players across the 70+ years of the NBA. He recently released his list of 10 players he would divide into his all-time first and second teams.
Shockingly enough, the list is comprised of players that have all been drafted before the 90s had even began, with his first team having legends that dominated 50 years ago.
Though he did have stars from a slightly more modern era in his second team with Michael Jordan and Karl Malone making the cut, Skip Bayless was having none of it.
Skip Bayless goes off on Julius Erving listing Michael Jordan as a second team All-Time player
Skip Bayless, an avid Michael Jordan fanatic, looked almost appalled at the fact that Dr. J had left out the ‘GOAT’ from his all-time first team. “The Dr is out of his mind! Any list that has Michael Jordan on the 2nd team is disqualified!”
There have been a plethora of reactions to this list as the fact that LeBron James, Shaq, nor Kobe Bryant weren’t anywhere to be seen on these two teams raised some eyebrows. Also, bringing it back to what Skip Bayless said, any team that doesn’t have Michael Jordan as one of the 5 best players should not be given much attention to.
ThrowbackHoops on Instagram released their own all-time NBA First team which featured LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Kevin Durant, and Michael Jordan, claiming it would absolutely own Dr. J’s mish-mash of dated stars from more than a half-century ago.
It’s clear that Julius Erving is trying to push the agenda of the NBA being better and more talented back in his hay-day, which is certainly not true. It’s important to give props to the legends that paved the way for future star; but to say that Jerry West would be taken over LeBron James in an all-time setting, is ludicrous.
