Best NBA franchise all time @ ESPN.com. Bulls 4th?

[hardguy]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playo...llinger_john&page=FranchiseRankings2010-Intro

Okay, I can understand the Lakers and Celtics but Bulls ranked 4th after Spurs?!hmy:

 

[Shakes]

There was a thread about this back when it was done last year. I still agree with the Spurs being higher. Other than the MJ years the Bulls have been pretty average.

 

[TheStig]

Shakes wrote:

There was a thread about this back when it was done last year. I still agree with the Spurs being higher. Other than the MJ years the Bulls have been pretty average.

Other than the Duncan years, the Spurs have been fairly average too. A little better than the bulls but I think MJ's dynasty is much better than Duncan's alternating rings.

 

[WearShades]

I think ESPN knows it's selection of the Spurs over the Bulls is a bit dubious. Their intro banner has Bird, Magic and Jordan. I didn't see Duncan or Robinson on there. I can see the argument for the Spurs, and it's not a bad one, but the Bulls Dynasty is really too good to keep them out of the top 3.

 

[Diddy1122]

Shakes wrote:

There was a thread about this back when it was done last year. I still agree with the Spurs being higher. Other than the MJ years the Bulls have been pretty average.

Yup it was the same last year & I agree. Spurs have more franchise success than the Bulls for longer, in arguably, other than possibly OKC, the smallest market in the NBA. 43 years as a franchise, 38 of them in the playoffs, that's pretty amazing.

 

[Kush77]

Re:Best NBA franchise all time @ ESPN.com. Bulls 4

Yep, I remember as well.

And I remember disagreeing with Shakes and Diddy on it.

While the Spurs have more overall success (season-by season), I think having 2 more titles (with three-peats), the greatest player ever and the best season ever, trumps making the playoffs more times.

 

[TheStig]

Re:Best NBA franchise all time @ ESPN.com. Bulls 4

Kush77 wrote:

Yep, I remember as well.

And I remember disagreeing with Shakes and Diddy on it.

While the Spurs have more overall success (season-by season), I think having 2 more titles (with three-peats), the greatest player ever and the best season ever, trumps making the playoffs more times.

Exactly, I just think the greatness of the dynasty puts us over the top. Those teams were just so great, including about a million records on that 72-10 team.

 

[Diddy1122]

Re:Best NBA franchise all time @ ESPN.com. Bulls 4

TheStig wrote:

Kush77 wrote:

Yep, I remember as well.

And I remember disagreeing with Shakes and Diddy on it.

While the Spurs have more overall success (season-by season), I think having 2 more titles (with three-peats), the greatest player ever and the best season ever, trumps making the playoffs more times.

Exactly, I just think the greatness of the dynasty puts us over the top. Those teams were just so great, including about a million records on that 72-10 team.

That was 1 team & the 6 championships was all the same era. The reason I can't put us ahead of the Spurs is because of this. It was the MJ-era & really nothing else, just a couple decent playoff teams in the 70's. The Spurs have won 17 division titles, 38yrs in the playoffs in 43yrs in existence, with an overall win percentage of 58%. There's not another single team in sports that can boast that except maybe the Yankees. So they have 2 less championships, they still have 10+ more post-season appearances, 9 additional division championships, & all of this in a city with a population less than Naperville.

 

[TheStig]

Re:Best NBA franchise all time @ ESPN.com. Bulls 4

I understaand your point and its impressive but I just think our peak was so much higher it compensates for that. This league is about greats, the pic for the article was mj, magic and bird, arguably the best players of all time.

 

[Bullsman24]

ok let's say you're some off the street person who's been living under a rock. you say the word basketball and they probably think of michael jordan and subsequently the chicago bulls. michael jordan popularized the game of basketball. singlehandedly. even more than magic vs bird. michael made basketball one of the three big sports in america and perhaps the second biggest international sport behind soccer in the world. is that not enough to beat one inconsistent run by the spurs? i'd say it's almost enough to beat the top 2. ok joking but still.

 

[Diddy1122]

bullsman24 wrote:

ok let's say you're some off the street person who's been living under a rock. you say the word basketball and they probably think of michael jordan and subsequently the chicago bulls. michael jordan popularized the game of basketball. singlehandedly. even more than magic vs bird. michael made basketball one of the three big sports in america and perhaps the second biggest international sport behind soccer in the world. is that not enough to beat one inconsistent run by the spurs? i'd say it's almost enough to beat the top 2. ok joking but still.

I'm not debating MJ's effect on the game. You're missing the point. It's not about MJ. It's about the franchise as a whole throughout their existence. The Bulls had an amazing run. If you just look at the 90's, then the Bulls are the better franchise, but if you look at the bigger picture it's pretty hard not to see why the Spurs are ranked #3 & not #4. The Spurs inconsistent? Hardly. They've been the model of consistency ever since they joined the league after '76. Only 8 seasons out of 43 with less than 40 wins, not including the lock-out year. 11 straight seasons of 50+ wins & finishing either #1 or 2 in the division. All this while playing in the superior Western Conference. 17 division titles in 33 years, which is more than any NBA team during that span. 3rd in overall win percentage. A near 70% win pct since '97, that's unbelievable. I believe rankings are fine just like they were last year.

 

[TheStig]

Diddy, I think everyone understands the statistical part of it. Not to mention that this is written by someone extremely biased to stats but I don't see how you can take the greatest team ever with the greatest player ever and more titles over a more consistent playoff team. Thats like taking the Utah Jazz over the Houston Rockets.