Younger fans of the NBA may not be aware of the fact that the “original Big Three” era of the Boston Celtics featuring Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale overlapped with the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. But they might be more surprised by how unthreatened that Celtics triumvirate felt towards that early version of His Airness’ ball club.
“I give the Chicago Bulls a lot of credit for winning three straight NBA titles, but, come on, does anyone honestly think those teams, even with Michael Jordan, could have beaten the 1985-86 champions with Larry Bird, Robert Parish, myself, Danny Ainge, Dennis Johnson, and Bill Walton?” McHale asked via Basketball Network’s Yakshpat Bhargava.
“Or the Los Angeles Laker champs of ’86-87 and ’87-88 with Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Michael Cooper, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?”
Celtics Lab 228: A Boston Celtics Thanksgiving (round) table with Bobby Krivitsky and Jack Simone https://t.co/lr5UQ6XdBg via @thecelticswire
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“Or the Detroit Piston teams of Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, which played great defense and won the ’88-89 and ’89-90 titles?” added McHale, driving the point home.
A young Jordan was very good indeed, averaging an absurd 43 points per game in his Bulls’ first postseason meeting with Boston in 1986. But basketball is a team sport, and the Celtics’ talent was simply overwhelming as McHale noted.
And young MJ would find out the hard way just how hard they were to beat in that series, Chicago getting swept in three games.
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