I’m with B Scott on this one I don’t think Kobe ever intended on leaving the Lakers. He’s too competitive to team up with other superstars.
Kobe & MJ would’ve relished at the challenge
I’m getting tired of these Bronnies acting like all star games never mattered when it’s the complete opposite. This is when the celebrities and athletes from other sports come to watch the best players compete.
We done with the revisionist talks.
MJ's Wizards tenure is seen by many as somewhat of a blemish on his unparalleled legacy. On september 25th 2001, at the age of 38 and 7 months, the GOAT announced his second comeback as a member of the Washington Wizards - just a few months after he broke a couple ribs during a pickup game in Chicago.
After winning just 19 games the previous season, the Wizards were off to a lousy start, being 5-12 and going on a terrible 8 game losing streak before hitting their stride and winning 9 in a row. Unfortunately, 8 games into the streak Rip Hamilton - the Wizards 2nd best player at this point - would suffer a groin injury and would miss about 5 weeks and the Wizards would end up going 8-9 without him. Immediately following Hamilton's return on January 31st, the 21-21 Wizards would go on a 5 game winning streak - things were looking up. The Wizards had won their last 13 games that had both MJ and Hamilton on the court.
Unfortunately the 38 year old Jordan was battling a chronic knee injury 1 2 3 that was aggravated in a collision with Etan Thomas in his 46th game which effectively ended his season - though he tried to play through it for several games. Immediately after the injury the 26-21 (.553 winning % .565 with Jordan) Wizards would go 1-9 in their next 10 games and 11-24 (a .314 winning %) for the remainder of the season and would finish with a 37-45 record and MJ would only end up playing a total of 60 games.
Now, out of curiosity I decided to take a look at MJ's game logs for the season, specifically pre and post-injury and as the season advanced, and what I found out was quite interesting.
For the whole 2001-02 season, Jordan averaged :
22.9 PPG 5.7 RPG 5.2 APG .416 FG% .790 FT%
However, for his first 46 (pre-injury) games, he averaged:
25.1 PPG 6.2 RPG 5.3 APG .420 FG% .790 FT% in 36.8 MPG
And his last 14 (post-injury) games, he averaged:
15.7 PPG 3.8 RPG 4.8 APG .391 FG% .787 FT% in 28.4 MPG
What I found most interesting though is that as the season progressed and MJ played himself into shape and shook off the 3 year retirement rust - he was playing better and better.
For his last 20 games pre-injury he averaged :
27.5 PPG 6.4 RPG 5.2 APG .440 FG%
And for his last 10 games pre-injury he averaged a blistering :
29.7 PPG 6.6 RPG 6.1 APG .470 FG%
Those are some crazy, crazy numbers in the dead ball era for a dude who at this point was a month or two away from being 39 years old, from a three year hiatus playing golf and smoking cigars everyday. Had Jordan and Hamilton both stayed healthy I honestly believe the Wizards might've won 48-50 games and made some noise in the playoffs on the back of a fucking 39 year old. Amazing.
The Wizards went from having won 19 games the year before to a potential Playoff contender that was derailed by injuries with their offseason additions being:
38,5 year old Michael Jordan - ended up only playing 60 games and starting 53 due to injury
Tyronn Lue - 20 mpg, 8 PPG 3.5 APG
Rookie Kwame Brown - 14 mpg, 4.5 PPG 3.5 RPG
Rookie Brendan Haywood - 14 mpg, 5 PPG 5 RPG
Rookie Etan Thomas - 13 mpg, 4 PPG 4 RPG
Rookie Bobby Simmons - 11 mpg, 4PPG 2RPG
MJ's Wizards tenure is seen by many as somewhat of a blemish on his unparalleled legacy. On september 25th 2001, at the age of 38 and 7 months, the GOAT announced his second comeback as a member of the Washington Wizards - just a few months after he broke a couple ribs during a pickup game in Chicago.
After winning just 19 games the previous season, the Wizards were off to a lousy start, being 5-12 and going on a terrible 8 game losing streak before hitting their stride and winning 9 in a row. Unfortunately, 8 games into the streak Rip Hamilton - the Wizards 2nd best player at this point - would suffer a groin injury and would miss about 5 weeks and the Wizards would end up going 8-9 without him. Immediately following Hamilton's return on January 31st, the 21-21 Wizards would go on a 5 game winning streak - things were looking up. The Wizards had won their last 13 games that had both MJ and Hamilton on the court.
Unfortunately the 38 year old Jordan was battling a chronic knee injury 1 2 3 that was aggravated in a collision with Etan Thomas in his 46th game which effectively ended his season - though he tried to play through it for several games. Immediately after the injury the 26-21 (.553 winning % .565 with Jordan) Wizards would go 1-9 in their next 10 games and 11-24 (a .314 winning %) for the remainder of the season and would finish with a 37-45 record and MJ would only end up playing a total of 60 games.
Now, out of curiosity I decided to take a look at MJ's game logs for the season, specifically pre and post-injury and as the season advanced, and what I found out was quite interesting.
For the whole 2001-02 season, Jordan averaged :
22.9 PPG 5.7 RPG 5.2 APG .416 FG% .790 FT%
However, for his first 46 (pre-injury) games, he averaged:
25.1 PPG 6.2 RPG 5.3 APG .420 FG% .790 FT% in 36.8 MPG
And his last 14 (post-injury) games, he averaged:
15.7 PPG 3.8 RPG 4.8 APG .391 FG% .787 FT% in 28.4 MPG
What I found most interesting though is that as the season progressed and MJ played himself into shape and shook off the 3 year retirement rust - he was playing better and better.
For his last 20 games pre-injury he averaged :
27.5 PPG 6.4 RPG 5.2 APG .440 FG%
And for his last 10 games pre-injury he averaged a blistering :
29.7 PPG 6.6 RPG 6.1 APG .470 FG%
Those are some crazy, crazy numbers in the dead ball era for a dude who at this point was a month or two away from being 39 years old, from a three year hiatus playing golf and smoking cigars everyday. Had Jordan and Hamilton both stayed healthy I honestly believe the Wizards might've won 48-50 games and made some noise in the playoffs on the back of a fucking 39 year old. Amazing.
The Wizards went from having won 19 games the year before to a potential Playoff contender that was derailed by injuries with their offseason additions being:
38,5 year old Michael Jordan - ended up only playing 60 games and starting 53 due to injury
Tyronn Lue - 20 mpg, 8 PPG 3.5 APG
Rookie Kwame Brown - 14 mpg, 4.5 PPG 3.5 RPG
Rookie Brendan Haywood - 14 mpg, 5 PPG 5 RPG
Rookie Etan Thomas - 13 mpg, 4 PPG 4 RPG
Rookie Bobby Simmons - 11 mpg, 4PPG 2RPG
Kobe Bean Bryant with the elevation following a severe ankle injury in the opening games of the 2011 NBA Finals!
Hmm… I’m starting to see a pattern here…
Although he chose Kobe because 5 > 1 at the time, it would be interesting to see if his stance had changed by today even although Kobe still has LeBron beat at 5 > 4.
He was one of the few greats who played against all three of MJ, Kobe, and LeBron during his career.
We talkin’ bout practice?
This man is setting new records at age 41, I am truly a witness.