re: Michael Jordan laughed at Kobe's comments

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Wasn't Bird's back pretty well shot by then? I was always under the impression that Bird was on that team more as a victory lap type deal than he was an integral piece?

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And btw, not that I think 12 would win by any means, but its things like that make it even harder to compare.

We see the names, and automatically think the prime version of those players, or at least I think most people do. Its much easier to see Kobe's current game v. his prime game because we're in that time, than it is to really think about what Bird or Magic's game was like in 92 v. their "highlight" packages.

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Wasn't Bird's back pretty well shot by then? I was always under the impression that Bird was on that team more as a victory lap type deal than he was an integral piece?

I know he scored 8 points a game, for 9th on the team.

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Pretty much. He was there because he and Magic helped build the NBA into a respectable nationwide league. There was no way that the greatest SF to ever take the court was going to miss the first Olympics that American pros were allowed to participate in.

As scary as the Dream Team was, can you imagine how scary the 88 team would have been if they allowed pros to go then as well?