Known for his nonchalant demeanor, Tim Duncan had all the skills to deal a blow on both ends of the floor. When Timmy was drafted in 1997, his rookie season coincided with Michael Jordan’s sixth championship campaign. This raised an intriguing question: How would have MJ’s Bulls fared against Duncan and his 1999 championship team?
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On his official Come and Talk 2 With Me pod, Mark Jackson recalled Avery Johnson’s comments about the 1999 Spurs team taking care of the Bulls in a seven-game series. The 1999 champion couldn’t recollect when he made such a statement but stuck with it, nonetheless. He confessed that the duo of MJ and Scottie Pippen was too much to handle but still backed his Spurs to get the job done.
Johnson revealed how they wondered which version of the Bulls squad they were going up against as they won from 1991-1993 to then 1996-1998 with different flavors. The former Spurs guard acknowledged that defending Jordan was nearly impossible.
However, he firmly believed that regardless of which Bulls championship team took on the Spurs, Duncan would always put up a formidable fight.
“At the end of the day, Michael is Michael, Scottie is Scottie but then we start to get to the other end. We start to get to the rest of it and then is it the first Bulls or the second Bulls team? Really and truely, they would have had no answer for Timmy D, who was gonna guard T? We can’t guard Michael, nobody in the centuries of basketball could of basketball can guard Michael…”
While he didn’t go deep into how his 1999 Spurs would have triumphed over the Jordan-led Bulls, Johnson confessed his love for fantasizing about such scenarios.
It’s true that Duncan’s fundamental post game gave trouble to even a defensive dynamo like Dennis Rodman. He and Robinson could have been a tough duo during a postseason situation. Apart from that, Timmy D would also have provided tremendous defensive cover against the duo of MJ and Pippen.
But Johnson’s take largely stems from his love for the team with which he spent 10 seasons. While the duo of Duncan and Robinson was spectacular during their 1999 title run, the Bulls appeared to be a more well-rounded team then. Unfortunately, Jordan and Duncan never clashed in the playoffs. Their H2h sample size is too small to ascertain anything.
Only two of their five head-to-head meetings occurred when MJ was with the Bulls. The 1997-98 Bulls emerged on top both times against a rookie Duncan. Apart from that, Jordan’s Washington Wizards clashed thrice against Duncan and Co. but lost twice. Jordan somehow snuck a win against the loaded Spurs in his last season.
While Avery Johnson’s optimism regarding the 1999 Spurs is understandable, it may not have been able to withstand the physicality of any Bulls’ title team, especially the ones with Dennis Rodman in it.
