Who are the 90's Bulls?

Ever since His Airness first ascended to the heavens (sometime during his on again, off again years in Chicago), talk of the second coming of Michael Jordan and the 90's Chicago Bulls teams has been derailing, confusing, and more or less saturating the discussion surrounding the NBA.  Vince Carter was MJ until it turned out he wasn't, Chris Webber was MJ right up until the point he couldn't be, Kobe Bryant might have been MJ until we learned we didn't like him, and we decided he was just Kobe, and now seriously, for real this time, Lebron is MJ, and to make things even more boring, the Cavs this year are the Bulls (srsly!)  We've been living with this discussion of who's the next Michael Jordan long enough that the backlash against it is just as much apart of the whole charade as the doe eyed participation.

When Lebron James made that 3-point buzzer beater at the end of the second game of the Orlando series it became official though, Lebron James is Michael Jordan. ESPN dot com ran about 100 special little videos comparing Lebron's buzzer beater to Jordan's "The Shot." After the game, Lebron James made the statement to the media, speaking to the Cleveland fans, "You guys don't have to worry about the old 23 in black and red no more, because the new 23 is in wine and gold..."

The new 23? Holy shit. This is serious... and LAME.

But here's my position: While Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers have picked up the needle and thread of the magic quilt of the 90's Bulls teams (kept in the basement of the NBA Folk Art Museum?), it is way less boring to draw that same thread through a different team, one much less "written in the stars": the 2009 Nuggets. And they're going to win the championship (crosses fingers.)

The other day, I was watching the Lakers/Nuggets series with some friends when my friend Michael posed the question to the group, "How much does Chris Andersen want to be Dennis Rodman?" The answer of course, is 100%. And why not?

The thing I remember most about the Chicago Bulls from the 90's wasn't their winning percentage, or Jordan's PER, what I remember most, and what I remember knowing and caring about most was how cool they were, how complete a story they told. When I talked with Andy X about the idea behind this article he looked at me puzzled and asked "you think the Bulls were the coolest team from the 90's?" I don't know, I was 10 in 1995, but to me they were like a comic book super-hero squad. And maybe 10 year olds today can look on Lebron and see what I saw in Michael Jordan. Maybe? In terms of effectiveness, the comparisons are there. In terms of prowess and dominance, yes definitely...but cool, style? I don't know, I'm not 10 anymore, but I doubt it.  And as for the rest of the Cavaliers, there's no discussion. Delonte West? Anderson Varejão? Ilgauskas? I mean, they're fine, I wouldn't have any problem with them if it weren't for this ridiculous victory lap of a season (which looks to be coming to an end, sans victory) and this pinheaded comparison to the Bulls.

As I said though, I'm not ten anymore, and Cleveland has spent their cultural currency this season buying imaginary cameras to take imaginary pictures of themselves during the Disney: Family style pre-game circus.

With what's left over, Lebron's been saving up to start his own private Michael Jordan Memorial Collection. After game two in the Orlando series, he bought "The Shot", but he's really hoping to get that first Championship ring, and take it to the next level.

David Drake, a friend and blogger at www.somanyshrimp.com who's been hyping Gucci Mane recently, wrote of Pac, Biggie and peek period Jay Z, 

"Their careers weren't dominated by thoughts of saving rap or some greatest-rapper/artiste-alive narrative that seems really important now to guys like Kanye & Wayne & late-period Jay-Z (never mind dudes like B.O.B. or Lupe or whoever else). One of the reasons I'm really enjoying new Gucci is that he's really having fun when he raps." 

You have to build your ideas of cool from the past, but you don't copy and paste and hype hype hype. Birdman suffers because of this, but at least he's imitating someone other than Jordan, at least he's digging a little deeper. We're fans, not statisticians.  Sure Bron is the best player in the world (don't even bring Kobe's name into this, and certainly no one's talking Melo in this contrived discussion) but that's not what I'm talking about.  These Nuggets are cool; Chauncey, Melo, JR. Smith, Birdman, Nene. ( Just a little shout out to Andy X and Freedarko for christening my love of Melo, Nene and J.R. Smith.) It's not just their personas that are attractive though, its their play. You can spot the moment Carmelo takes the team on his back and starts nailing all those corner J's.  You can tell when J.R. is taking the ball up the court that he's going to toss up a 25 foot 3-pointer in wildly bad taste, but hit it at a decent rate. When Billups is on the court, everything seems certain. One of the top overall point guards in the league.

And then there's The Birdman, and Nene, who compliment each other so nicely. Birdman, a recovering drug addict and white country boy with freakish athleticism and a passion for blocks and boards, and Nene the Brazilian in c'rows who battled back from testicular cancer last year, and is back playing his nimble seven foot basketball.  I'm not 10 years old anymore but these Nuggets are doing it for me, just like the Bulls in the 90's. (oh yeah, I meant it, they're going to win the Championship. Maybe.)