re: Would Jordan just be Demar if he played today?

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The NBA added 6 expansion teams during the Jordan era. It added 90 roster spots and 90 players that normally would not have been good enough to make roster spots became NBA players.

The talent level dipped tremendously. In the 80s teams were stacked as talent was consolidated. Jordan won zero rings. After expansion Jordan won 6 rings.

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Let's not act like Jordan wasn't an incredible player in the 1980s. He was a multi-time scoring champion, multi-time first team all-NBA, multi-team first team all-defense, made the all-star team every year, and he won an MVP. Also, all you're saying is that Jordan didn't win a ring before he had another all-star on his team (which is something LeBron has never done, either). Hard to fault Jordan for not winning a ring pre-Pippen when Jordan played at an extremely high level during the 80s.

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The average NBA PPG in the 80s was 109.3 when the talent dipped in the 90s the scoring went down to 101.3 PPG. This was despite way more 3 pointers being shot in 90s as opposed to the 80s. The play was so bad the NBA moved the 3 pt line closer for 3 years in the 90s to try to help improve scoring.

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You fail to mention that the league-wide average FGA per game dipped from the high 80s to the low 80s during the 1990s. During the same time period, the league-wide average FTA per game dipped from the high 20s to the mid 20s. So, teams were taking 8-9 fewer shots per game and taking 5 fewer free throws per game. Teams were taking fewer shots because teams were playing better defense. That's the reason why PPG dropped in the 90s, not a large dip in talent (which you can't easily quantify).

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By the time the 2000s came around the international talent pool was deep enough to compensate for the additional teams. That's when you got the Steve, Nash,Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Dirks, Peja etcs

Jordan was great, but we have to put what he accomplished in proper prospective.

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I get where you're coming from with the additional teams point, but there was PLENTY of talent to go around in the 1990s without the international talent pool. Alonzo Mourning, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Patrick Ewing, Shawn Kemp, Reggie Miller, Gary Payton, Dikembe Mutumbo, etc. If we put what Jordan accomplished into proper perspective, he played against and consistently beat some of the greatest players to ever play the game. This misnomer that the 90s were short of NBA talent comes from the fact that none of these all-time greats could get past Michael Jordan.

In summation, your entire post is filled with a shite ton of mental gymnastics to try and degrade the legacy Michael Jordan left behind. He accomplished things that very few players will ever do, and did some other things that will likely never be done again. No amount of excuses can take away from what Michael Jordan did in basketball.