Superteams have long divided the basketball world. To purists, they ruin the spirit of competition, stacking the deck and stripping away the beauty of organic rivalries. For others, the idea of watching a handful of modern-day greats playing together on the same jersey is as appealing as it gets. LeBron James has often been criticized as the poster boy for this modern phenomenon. However, the concept isn’t new.
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In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Lakers had a trio of all-time greats in Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor — long before LeBron was even born. Still, his infamous “The Decision” stands out as the catalyst that reignited the era of manufactured juggernauts. In 2010, he left the Cleveland Cavaliers to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami and went on to dominate the NBA in the years that followed.
David Falk, Michael Jordan’s longtime agent, recently weighed in on the debate on The Stephen A. Smith Show. Falk emphasized that Jordan would’ve never taken such a route.
“Jordan wanted to beat the best, not join them,” Falk declared. He recalled asking MJ if he wanted to play alongside Larry Bird and Magic Johnson — and the question alone pissed him off.
“Are you nuts? I would never want to play with Bird and Magic. I wanted to beat their butts every night on a one-on-one competitive level,” Falk quoted Jordan. This is what separates the Chicago Bulls legend from James. Jordan wanted to achieve everything with the team that drafted him, without taking any shortcuts.
Falk admitted that “The Decision” was a mistake and believes it could’ve been handled far more professionally.
“The PR mistake was when he did The Decision…and said I’m gonna win not one, not two, not three, but eight titles, which he still hasn’t won,” Falk said. He believes that if he had done the interview and waited until he won his first ring, it would have been a more respectable decision.
Other than calling it a mistake, Falk pointed out that James was a free agent at the time, and it was his right to join any team he wanted. Jordan, however, would not have done that.
Jordan despises the idea of superteams
The NBA has changed drastically since Jordan was leaving audiences stunned on a daily basis. When he was an active player more than three decades ago, only a handful had any say in where they wanted to play. The league and its franchises dictated the terms.
Today, every team has at least one or two stars who do just that. If their terms aren’t met, they create a nuisance to force the organization to cave.
In an older interview, Jordan said, “I think you want to be able to have competitive balance in the league. If a player is able to choose/determine what team he wants to play for, then we are going to have a talent discrepancy in the league.”
In Jordan’s opinion, if two teams stack multiple superstars, it will harm the other 28 teams. This could be catastrophic for the league’s future, as fans may eventually grow bored of seeing the same thing repeatedly.
