Ever since the Kevin Durant – Stephen Curry Golden State Warriors dominated the field in their time together, NBA fans have always wondered if they were better than Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls squad. It's a fair question: the two teams are undeniably the two greatest teams to play in the NBA. It's just a matter of who's number 1 between the two teams.
For his part, Scottie Pippen, who was the second-in-command of those legendary Bulls teams, thinks that they could handily beat those Warriors squad. Pip laid out his reasoning in his latest book. (via Josh Eberley)
“Me or Kevin Durant at small forward? You could go either way.”
— Josh Eberley 🇨🇦 (@JoshEberley) November 11, 2021
Essentially, Pippen broke down the Bulls-Warriors debate based on the positional matchups. He asserted that Dennis Rodman was better than Draymond Green, Luc Longley was better than JaVale McGee or Andrew Bogut, and Michael Jordan was better than Klay Thompson. The only matchup that the Warriors won according to Pip was the point guard position, where Curry was “clearly” better than Ron Harper.
As for his own matchup with Kevin Durant… Scottie Pippen said it's a toss-up. Finally, he also claims that the Warriors had nobody off the bench who was as skilled as Toni Kukoc. Because of those reasons, Pippen believes that the Bulls would easily win over the Warriors.
Is Pippen right about his claims about the Warriors? Perhaps: Basketball arguments are hard to judge, especially if we're talking about two teams who played in different eras. Pip, at the very least, got the part right about Jordan and Curry (who Steve Kerr thinks are similar in a lot of ways) winning their respective matchups. The Durant-Pippen debate is a coin-flip, and the last two matchups are also very 50-50.
However, this same Warriors team popularized the idea of position-free basketball. For this team, what your position is doesn't mean much. Because of that, it's incredibly hard to determine the winner here. Take your pick.
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