How Scottie Pippen changed the 1998 Finals | Enhanced pod

Not the first and only stars. Go watch some late 60s and 70s games. The spacing was horrendous before the tye 3pt line was added

You can adjust for all of that by simply looking at their efficiency relative to league average instead of comparing them 1 to 1. Guys like MJ and LBJ are still head and shoulders above the chuckers you mentioned.

Exactly. MJ himself even said he hated playing against zone

@Maverick92 Legends will be legends regardless of what era. Moreso when the playoffs come around and then these guys play at a different level than people trying to over analyze regular season stats for. Especially the ability to make the midrange automatic when jumpers are hard to buy and just making difficult shots overall.

@Maverick92 It’s not that simple. Playing with spacing and switching today allows for stars to have these huge gaps from the league average. Superstars today constantly are able to take advantage of mismatches and space in defenses.
Versus back in 2002, someone like Iverson is dealing with zone, hand checking, and playing with non-shooters and STILL everyone knows he is going to take the shot.
Someone like Iverson is naturally going to shoot closer to league average, while someone like James Harden will be more efficient.
Perfect example of relative efficiency just not working:
Iverson in 2001 had a 0% Relative TS.
Iverson in 2008 had a 2.7 Relative TS.
Anybody with eyes can tell you he was a better scorer in 2001. But in 2008, he was in a better team situation with Carmelo, had more spacing, and different rules. You’ll never be able to measure how good those stars are.

The co-stars and role players of the 90s Bulls and 2000s Lakers post seasons were special, they would be a mine for great basketball and analysis. Pippen jumping all over the court and doing It all with a maximum mileage and hampered body for sure my favourite, but Kukoc, Horry, Rodzilla, Harper-old Harper, old Grant etc, great stuff.
Also the post-Duncan-carry jobs Spurs, mid 2000s dynasty.
And then the Lakers and Spurs' post season competitions of course made it a whole masterpiece together.

For real

Couldn’t agree more. As a younger basketball fan, I find it crazy how the older generation who love the 90s just don’t discuss illegal defense. They act like it had no impact at all. In reality, it completely dictated how teams could scheme defensively. It makes me wonder how well the vast majority of fans who watched MJ really know the game like that since this has just been swept under the rug like it doesn’t matter

Crazy thing is, older fans would blatantly ignore that. You won't really understand how tough it is to score if the opposing team plays zone defense if you haven't experienced one. This just puts my respect to the scorers of the 2000's on a higher level.

@Michael Gieseler I guess it gets swept under the rug because even the league didn't want to glamorize it. Part of what stays in the public (dare I say casual) consciousness about what they fondly remember about NBA things is if its marketed as such. I mean even the NBA now won't acknowledge your observation about the results when illegal defense was finally lifted and the results it gave.

Don't forget Nash too. He was a rare efficient shooter in that era

The problem with Ai in this conclusion is that even compared to those guys he shot the heaviest volume along with bad efficacy dude shot like 38% from the field in a season he won the scoring title which is why the title lost its a prestige (since you could chuck and win it) until Tmac and Kobe and made it that both efficiency and volume matter

just absolutely insane. This is probably the only example along with kawhi and heat lebron of a perimeter wing/forward dpoy as the impact on and off ball especially for scottie is almost but not quite comparable to an elite rim protector.

Pippen almost never defended point guards as most of them were too quick for him. Phil could only put him on Jackson because he was the slowest point guard in the league. In fact, Phil almost always based his defensive assignments on position.
But whenever the smaller, quicker guards like Price, KJ or Hardaway began torching the Bulls, it wasn't Pippen who would switch off onto those guys. It was Jordan.

They wanted more ISO ball. So when they eliminated that rule, Offences had to adapt by making it more team oriented. Because teams came up with more complex defensive schemes.

It still exists in the defensive 3 second violation which I think is just the dumbest rule

@Thomas Brady Especially when it exists as an artifact of its time yet never gets enforced. May as well remove it altogether.

@James Cruz it gets called from time to time but only when it's blatant.

Seconded. I think adding context for why the rules changed would bridge the gap between the older and newer generations of basketball fans. Thinking basketball is the perfect channel to explore how these developments impacted the game we watch today.

Sounds like they ditched it because it was too hard to enforce - at least with the bulls 4-man switching. Not sure if alterior motives, like getting more of the players involved instead of just the PnR guys, were involved.
It could be similar to the addition of the No Hand Checking rules, which gave guards more freedom of movement and the defenders a tougher job, and coincidentally more offense, which is easily marketable and increases revenue.

Probably because illegal defense made basketball more entertaining for the fans. More 1 v 1, more drives to the basket, more dunks etc. Zone defense and other illegal defense can kill the play if you don't shoot 3s well and in that era NBA players either didn't shoot 3s well, or their coaches didn't let them shoot as many 3s as they do nowadays.

@Barry McCociner Illegal defense rule helped offense and that's why it existed in the first place, to make the game more entertaining to casuals and thus more profitable.

@Barry McCociner The illegal defense rule made it much easier for Jordan than any hand checking could.

It is frustrating but it is part of sport. It is very evident in the NFL where it took awhile for the spread offense to be a trend. Then when it became a trend the league copy catted it and saw how sustainable it was. Then it was on to other new efficient trends like 2TE big sets where you can run the ball and use TEs as receivers to win matchups. But your logic thinking the Jazz could win with that adjustment is unfounded. For one the Jazz have no experience playing small so they can't execute that properly. Two the 98 Bulls were already experienced playing small. So you don't get one up on a team playing a game they already have been doing for awhile.

@BludAardvark I get your point of copy cat league stuff. I hear what you're saying with the jazz having no small ball experience, but my point is the bulls were probably not the first team to try using a roamer on d against the jazz. It likely didn't workout for the teams that tried it because they didn't have the personnel so the jazz never practiced it. The bulls did have the personnel. We see a similar thing with the jazz now, 5 out teams are hard for the jazz to beat despite near league leading offense because it pulls Gobert from the rim. Hard to beat teams when they have a free lane to the hoop

@C Gleason It doesn't help for the current Jazz team that their roster is constructed poorly. The problem isn't Gobert getting played out. Its that from 1~4 they offer minimal resistance to shot creators at the perimeter. Which leads Gobert at an island at times to try stop the penetration before its too late and if he does get help, congrats as the ball already moved to an open man. Its happened before with Kevin Love's T-Wolves squad. Poor perimeter defense and the inability to switch put Love in a situation to be the rim protector and he's not cut out for that. Because there are teams that don't play tiny 2 man back courts and a big that can hang at the perimeter and are very tenacious defensive squads (Heat, Grizzlies, Bucks, Cavs, T-Wolves are top 10 defense team, Suns arguably are best defense next to the Warriors).
The Bulls aren't the first but defensively they arguably were the most effective to do it. And as I wrote about stubborn conservatism if that was the case, other franchises would have taken the cue to approach their team building in a way they have. But consider that Pippen as an 'archetype' of a player was still pretty rare and the league still loved to run the offense inside-out.

Well, Depends on if your non-threat is Dennis Rodman or Mark Eaton. Worked out for us.

@Biostalker420 it worked out because the bulls were ahead of their time. The whole starting lineup was 6'6 or bigger and able to switch. And for all of Rodmans offensive faults, he played bigger than he was and was not an unathletic ostertag or foster. Credit to the bulls for building a roster that was able to take advantage of the jazz weakness. However, the jazz put one more guy out their who can shoot reasonably well for the time, anderson, I think the jazz win

It would just be plainly unfair.
Pippen was already cloning himself and being the best help defender already with those limitations on his turf, and the three of Pippen, Rodman and Harper were already turning the 90s Finals competition into blowouts at the rec center.
It would look ugly.

I mean Pippen was the quintessential mold of that ideal two way wing player that GMs would try find and develop from the 2000s and on. Jordan as amazing as he was as as scorer was king of help defense at the wing. Harper is no slouch defensively as well. Rodman was an amazing 1v1 defender and just boxed out his matchup regardless. All 4 are switchable and they made it super difficult to attack inside regardless. So the lack of a rim protector in some lineups wasn't really felt because of that. It is what teams are trying to do now with the Warriors optimizing that recipe.

@BludAardvark It was over when the 80s Bulls organization actually committed the bare minimum to winning and to their newly drafted superstar, and then doubled and tripled all over it.
Hiring Krause and having Pippen in the draft + Krause fleecing Rodman, Harper and Kukoc was the set of events and historical timings that buried the competition.

Depends. Defensively they’d be the best ever. Offensively, MJ struggles. He said himself in 03 had he played against the zone his whole career he wouldn’t have been as good. He benefited a lot from being able to face 1 guy until basically he elevated when attacking the rim.
I could only imagine LBJ being able to go 1 v 1 until his at full steam

@HARDWOOD THOUGHT Are you insane? With the spacing in today's league no one would stop Jordan from getting to the rim. Also there was no defensive 3 second lane violation when Jordan played so the opposing teams center could park his ass under the rim to stop Jordan. That wouldn't happen nowadays. Also let us not forget that nowadays you can't even touch someone when they have the ball.

He was like Walmart version lebron for his era

@Tik Tok Exposed Not Walmart, basically a lite Lebron

@Tik Tok Exposed More like a smaller Giannis, Pippen wasn’t even close to Lebron in term of skills (3pts, logo 3´s, midrange, fadeaway, passing, vision, anticipation, IQ seeing 2 moves ahead and even his handles).
Pippen was a smaller Giannis, or Kawhi without the elite shooting.

@Dusk Scottie Barnes is also very similar to Pippen, he is just bigger but i think Barnes will be like Pippen when he will reach his prime.

@Dusk Also Kevin Garnett, but KG was more skilled in the offensive end, but in term of body type, athleticism and being able to guard multiple positions they are very similar

How can you be an all time help defender and the best perimeter defender ever with those type of limitations on your own turf?
Especially with being a complete package and workhorse on offense as well?
Sheesh, he would be in paradise.

I think Kawhi is pretty much what you would expect to see Scottie be like on defense in today's game

@D S yeah but no. Scottie would be better

@D S It would be a better Kawhi but, ironically considering Kawhi's motor and attitude since the last half a decade, a Raptors-Clippers age Kawhi with an insane motor and workhorse commitment.
It's a sight to watch the Bulls era Pippen games with him working on defense, especially when both him and someone like Rodman are on the floor.

Would also be crazy to see LeBron bulldozing through this weak defense of the 90s.

He had the greatest first step in NBA history paired with an era that gave him basically a free run to the rim with late help all game long and no staggered defenses to make him pickup/pass rather than get to his pull-up at will. As an MJ diehard even I can admit that, idk what keeps others from being so biased that they can’t even acknowledge what’s literally on tape.

Those people would get the tier of heaven-layup line status for the offense in the 90s had they watched one single game of the era.
Also, there were matchups that made this a whole other tier of evident, for example some Bulls games when matched up with the Jazz or Hornets, MJ isolated against Hornacek and Bogues.

@Chad Zard Did you not watch the video? Look at the spacing MJ gets by virtue of just having 4 guys (most of which arent even great shooters) stand on one side. Jordan was obviously an absurdly good isolation player, but let's not pretend the rules of that era didn't dramatically favor isolation scorers.
And as for the ol' "They could just grab and hold everyone!", I highly recommend rewatching some of those games in full. Because the handchecking myth is overblown beyond belief.

@Chad Zard And since you seem to believe the illegal defense rules let bigs stand under the rim all game, I take it you 100% did not watch the vid nor do you even know how the illegal defense rules of that era worked

I Agree Bro.. Scottie was Brilliant

Hahaha at smart

@No Name Will Be Given hey man, game recognize game, and the subtleties and nuance with which Scottie played can sometimes be overlooked by someone who just watches to see who puts the ball in the basket.

@Titus Mark and that also goes for the fools of this channel who you actually think know ball

Nope

Should have at least one

Hahaha !

And yet they did it twice and Stockton is the all time assist leader from running these plays and Malone second in scoring

You're very gullible Strand

Tbh back then was balance for biggest star of the team was center, they wanted more big to go one v one, but the league was smart to implement the change so guard and more skill players can dominate which was smart as Now player are more skillful then past player. (Quote more skill doesn’t mean better so don’t @ me how Bill Russell would destroy Jokic)

No

Possibly so, although Bill was a bit of an outside shooting threat, when that was rare for a big, so it was probably more for Scottie to defend on the perimeter than to roam.

Laimbeer was not a low post scorer.

True

I don't see any zone defense all I saw was a bunch of people talking

He wasn't lol. He wasn't even better than MJ.

@HandleBucket62 lol yes he was

@HandleBucket62 Well it’s a matter of opinions, but I’d say both of them are in the top *10* for sure

@6 Dotz literally all the single defensive coverage stats say otherwise

@Leonide Jordan was a great guard against guards but he wasn't better than Payton or Moncrief. There's plenty of wings, forwards and centers who should be above Jordan. I'd take Kawhi's defensive prime over Jordan's easily.

Didn't the Bucks win Last year with Middleton as the only other all star?

@Sole Magus We just forgetting Jrue Holiday with 17 and 9 with excellent defense in that finals?

Imagine putting prime Kobe, AI , tmac even LEBRON with that type of defensive rule? they would have tear through the league like butter. early 2000s ball was the most hardest era to score on. No spacing and no illegal defense rule, absolute garbage spacing back then

@Sole Magus Jrue's decision making on ball and being the 2nd best defensive player next to Giannis was key to the Bucks making a push. Middleton is nice but he's nowhere the iso defender Jrue is and in the playoffs, you will get those situations and he will do his job. It also allowed Middleton to do his thing as the best 3rd option for the Bucks.

@Shan Lo Tracy Mcgrady, Kobe and Iverson played in the 90’s lol

he would be useless in todays era

Sweep? Man the 2017 Warriors would blow them out every single game, repeating x4 the easy Game 3 historical blow out.
Those teams and competitions don't compare, unless Malone and Stockton actually get the help from the all time Jazz pool.

That is unfair to begin with. As a defensive unit the Jazz was built to take on who they can in the 90s. But they also played traditional lineups against others teams who did and theirs just matched up best. The Jazz's bigs are gonna get ran out and Sloane may not even go small out of sheer conservative stuborness.

Time travel matchups is never a good debate, because today's worst team would destroy the best team in the 80s or 90s. It doesn't mean they weren't great at their time, with what they have at their disposal.

@Student of Tate Today's worst team would destroy the best team in the 80s or 90s? Huh? The best teams of the 80s or 90s may not be as dominant under today's rules simply because they were built for their eras, but you're beyond delusional if you think Magic's Lakers or any other top 5 80s team is getting waxed by the '22 Rockets under any set of rules. I mean, I get it, you just started watching basketball recently, so you're really excited about the league, but come on, why make such a bad take?

The 2018 Warriors almost lost to CP3/Harden +role players lol

I hate how fans act like Lebron has the crazy advantage Jordan had. The league sucked him and Magic off more than any other players ever. People didnt wanna see Russell, Wilt, or Kareem win. But they loved Bird, Magic and especially Jordan. Then Shaq and Kobe definitely got more than a little help for their 3peat. And lately Steph can do no wrong. I got more respect for Lebron and Duncan for winning a lot despite other people being more praised. Russell is my favorite player ever because he won despite the world being against him. Fans gave his white teammates all the credit even though he got the MVPs and the players followed him. That dude won for no one else except the guys he played with and walked away with 14 first place trophies. Lebron and Jordan are definitely the most skilled/elite players ever but Bill Russell would find a way to beat them both.

@Geordie Jones yawn troll

No he doesnt

@No Name Will Be Given actually he can. There's a video where pippen had to defend Patrick ewing and was able to lock him down.

@Goku Baller no there's not you troll

@Goku Baller no there isnt little boy

90s still a more exciting Era compared to the 2010s (LeFraud Era) that saw ratings plummet.
Nobody wants to see each team jacking 40+ 3s

@Ken S. nah tell your gen z cult that.

Nope trolly

Put it like that, one former coach aaid he so talented with the dribble the only one can stop him was himself. Rodman one of greatest defender ever said he can get his anywhere he wanted. Then look at his footwork in the post. Then throw in the watch 1-5 on the court because of his length, speed, and constantly thinking were the ball could go next. Then answer that question yourself.

Pippen aint Jordan you goofball

@Anna R Jordan was Jordan before Pippen ever sniffed the NBA court. Kick rocks troll

@The Bronze Bomber which is natural since 3 pt shots are worth one point more and mid range shots are more ineffective. The game got pushed outside since they can stop you nowadays from shooting at the rim more often with illegal defensive rules eliminated and more advanced coverages like hybrid zones are allowed. Only thing is that the transition from mid range to 3 pt outweighs the amount of shots at the rim this resulting in higher TS% which is a wierd stat since it acts like every 2 3 pointers equals an extra shot attempt theoretically bc its worth an extra 2 points after every second 3 pointers but the players never took that shot. It’s simpler to see how many shots did they take and make and where compared to taking possible points per attempts into account. 2PT% is also lower today so my point still stands along with all the others

@Szilárd Oberritter I know field goal% is lower which is natural when you take more 3’s but I’m not sure about 2pt%. Especially with the amount of long mid range jumpers players took back then.

@Szilárd Oberritter The old illegal defense was replaced with the modern defensive 3. Only in FIBA can you play unrestricted zones.

there is truth in what you say for both comments. But nowadays players usually just step out or touch an offensive player to be there longer. But that’s not my point tbh. What I mean is that illegal defense rules with the right positioning allowed players to play more isolated at the rim. That’s why it’s called the isolation or 1 on 1 era. I can’t attach pictures to show the examples but unless they doubled teamed a player who is posting up and isolation the help defense usually never arrived in time and for that reason there were many many post ups and shots at the rim. It wasn’t necessary to spread the floor that much thus players couldn’t shoot as well from the outside . You couldn’t use pre rotation to the strong side and zone on the weak side to intimidate players into more outside shots or forcing them to pass up as often. These type of box-man , hybrid zone coverages pushed the game outside. That’s the reason for example why player plays one on one more on the perimeter nowadays as often because if you post up teams can put multiple defenders close enough to the paint and still have enough coverage to swarm and recover on the weak side . If you play 1 on 1 further outside the defense has to cover bigger ground which they weren’t forced to do with illegal defensive rules and that’s why players weren’t that good 3 point shooters back then to spread the defense.
Unfortunately I can’t show pictures but these defenses can also force the ball more out of a superstars hands in high pressure situations.
Teams don’t play this type of defense or be as active nowhere close as often in the regular season as in the Playoffs and that trend is going upwards nowadays.
Stats I pulled up are just trying to prove what I tried to explain here and they align well with the idea. They wanted to speed up the game, motivate players to learn more skills and get the ball moving more while forcing the ball out of an isolating player.

No, only at the end of that Finals series. And Scottie's mobility was so poor that Phil had him guard Mark Jackson in the Eastern Conference Finals!

What a bunch of crap lol. Saw that "true reason" in 1994 and 1995

@David Schmidt It's ironic that MJ gets the credit when he wins solely with Pippen and loses with and without Pippen but Scottie doing it without Michael is held to scrutiny.

@Dusk to be frank though both sides of this argument is overblown, Jordan can't win 6 rings without Pippen but he more then likely win 3-4 rings if he did what Lebron did and form superteams. Pippen definitely can win without Jordan but he is by all mean not the first option the 1994-1995 season has shown that, his lack of half court offense really hold what otherwise is a true regularly mvp contender

@Hoang Nam Nguyen The most ironic thing out of all of this is that Lebron too would've gotten his 6 rings to Cleveland had he faced that type of competition with the type of front office and tools his alternative all-time FO and ownership would've gave him.
No need to go with the Heat if the Celtics Big 4 doesn't appear the year he took over the East in 2007.

@Dusk You can make that argument for pretty much every players ever, maybe aside from the few guys who had it lucky coming in the league

No he wasnt

He was averaging 30 points against the lakers the series before and had some off games. I’m a Utah supporter too so was hard to watch the jazz lose game 6 in 1998 as they were ripped off. Howard Eisley hit a three that was taken away and Ron Harper hit a two which should have been disallowed

@Daniel Pauley I remember that Lakers team had 4 all stars shaq Kobe Eddie and nick. And ppl try to act like they were “old” but we know that they were serious contenders

@J C and the jazz sweeper them.

@Daniel Pauley and stop acting like two shots that wasnt late in the game was gonna decide the outcome

Agreed , and there is still handchecking in the nba right now.

yes because team defense will always trump isolation you were limited then and even guys like greg ostertag would not even be in todays league. Even guys like antoine carr would be useless . the pick and roll game between john and Malone would be common nothing special since the entire league knows how to guard it as a team. the jazz was one dimensional even then today they would be easier to beat malone would have even less scoring opportunities

Old school fans? The NBA itself has stated it's easier to score in today's game, and that the rules changes overall were made with the intent to make it easier to score in today's game.
Stu Jackson, former Vice President of Basketball Operations, in 2009: "With the rule and interpretation changes, it has become more difficult for defenders to defend penetration, cover the entire floor on defensive rotations and recover to shooters. This has provided more time for shooters to ready themselves for quality shots. With more dribble penetration, ball handlers are getting more opportunities at the rim.. The benefits of an open game are not limited to just perimeter players. An open game can benefit a post player as well. Remember, if the players are spaced wider and using more of the court, then defenses have to play those players closely because they're good shooters. The style actually serves to open up the middle of the floor. If a team has an effective post player, he would have more room to operate in the post." Adam Silver in 2018 speaking about the boost in Offensive scoring and the cutting down of the amount of contact defensive players can make: "We had a call with our competition committee last week, which is made up of coaches, GMs, owners, players, officials to discuss just that, and the consensus, or the strong feeling from the group was that the rule changes were happening as we intended." So basically, the NBA itself has stated that the rules changes overall were to favor the offense by opening up the game for them and consequently restrict the defense. It's rather telling that teams and players back in the day would be worried about the kind of defensive play that would be allowed, whereas these days teams and players get worried about the kind of defensive play NOT being allowed, hence why you've got players like Draymond Green complaining about defense not being allowed and coaches like Popovich saying "it's a lot more difficult to play and pioneer defense right now."
The NBA knew implementing zone wouldn’t make up for the removal of hand checking and overall physical defense, because as already stated, the NBA itself said that their overall intention with the rules changes was to make things easier for the offense, which consequently means that overall, they restricted the defense.The NBA itself has also stated the rules changes have changed the game the way they wanted, as intended by they themselves. Kobe Bryant referred to zone defense as a "crutch defense." Great defensive players even in the current era like Draymond Green have said you can't really play defense in the league today. Great defensive coaches like Popovich have echoed similar sentiments. The rules overall restricts the defense, regardless of zone defense. Jordan had to face zone anyway though:
"Last season, Jordan had to overcome the harassment of zone traps and double and triple-teaming"
- New York Times, 1987
"They`ve used zone traps; they`ve put two, three and sometimes four defenders on him"
- Chicago Tribune, 1987
''My concerns are that more teams are going to the trap, 'which ultimately ends in a zone defense for a period of seconds, which makes it extremely difficult to attack in the 15 or so odd seconds after it crosses the half-court line to set up the offense... After our game Tuesday night against Miami, I watched the Laker and Chicago game on satellite TV. I noticed that Chicago has adopted a half-court that L.A. has been using so successfully and it ended up in a zone defense for a period of seconds, which forced L.A. to take a quick shot without the ability to set up their half-court offense.'' 'When you play New York, you have to prepare yourself because they have so many different traps.''
- Chuck Daly, 1988
The assumption that zone defenses are not played in the NBA is false. The rules allow for full-court zone pressure, and because defenses are permitted to aggressively double-team the ballanywhere on the floor, teams play de facto zones in the frontcourt,too. To one degree or another, every NBA team uses some type of zone.
- Sports Illustrated, 1990
"Our teams are zoning now. Rule or no rule. We're not allowed to use the word `zone' but it's a zone.''
- Dick Motta, 1996
"They (Seattle Supersonics) play a zone defense. They shove you in a corner and they trap you at half-court and they run off and double-team while you're dribbling the ball. It's a legal zone but they have a heck of a good defense."
- Phil Jackson, 1996
"I don't think Seattle is going to put Gary Payton on Michael Jordan. We like that matchup because he'll get in foul trouble. In a zone defense like Seattle plays, they're just going to send him some way where they can double-team him all the time." - Phil Jackson, 1996
Utah plays the best zone in basketball. They play a 2-1-2 with five guys with a foot in the paint 90 percent of the time." - George Karl, 1996
"A lot of good defensive teams are playing nothing more than a disguised zone. The Bulls, the Sonics, a couple of other teams do it."
- Antoine Carr said the chief problem with the illegal-defense rule is that coaches know refs won't call it every time they see it. Oh and btw, Jordan at near 40 years old had to play against the zone in 2001-2002, and he was still killing it prior to tearing his meniscus. In the 46 games that Jordan played in 01/02 before the injury, he averaged 25.1 PPG. In his last 20 games up to the injury he averaged. 27.5 PPG. In his last 10 games up to the injury he averaged 29.7. Rip Hamilton also missed 5 weeks, but when the two played prior to Jordan's injury, they were 15-1. Lastly, if Jimmy Butler, who's inferior to Jordan in every way and is basically a poor poor man's Michael Jordan, if can do what he does and what he did in the 2020 Finals, there's no doubt Jordan would absolutely dominate.

Yup. Advanced checkers is still a lesser game than mediocre chess.

I largely agree with this. Defense now is far more sophisticated. It's just that back in the 80s and early 90s, you could get away with a lack of sophistication with stuff like just tackle a guy in mid-air and let him think twice before trying to enter the lane again, or get really physical with the hand checking so perimeter guys can't get running starts. The rules changes are a big part of the reason why all the top scorers today are perimeter guys whereas up through the 90s it was mostly Cs and PFs.

Your post is very unfair to Karl Malone when we consider just how low-scoring the series between Utah and Chicago were: over two Finals, only Utah -- in 1997's Game 3 -- managed to score over 100 points in any contest.
This matters, as this talk about Malone's play comes in the context of very, very low scoring series. Series that Utah came within inches of winning; in 1997 the Jazz were outscored by 4 points total, in a series where 4 out of 6 games came down to the last possession, and in 1998 5 out of 6 games came down to the last possession.
Considering how close those series were, I find the description of Utah as "non-existent competition" to be an ahistorical assertion: Chicago averaged 0.6 points more than Utah in 1997's Finals, and Utah could have won that series in five games if one or two more bounces had gone their way.
In that same context, Utah averaged 87.2 points per game in 1997 and just 80.2 in 1998. I don't see the disgrace in that, as this was a much more harsh, defensive era (and the Bulls definitely used illegal spacing in 1998's Finals to harm Utah's offense).
With all that as backdrop, Malone's 23.8 PPG -- in a 1997 Finals where he was playing with a ripped up shooting hand that had been robbing him of shooting touch for weeks -- and 25 PPG in 1998's Finals are not bad statistical lines.
To put Malone's scoring load in context, Barkley only scored 2.3 more points per game in 1993's Finals despite playing on a team that was averaging 26.7 more points per game than the Jazz did in that 1998 Finals.
What that means is that Malone was actually responsible for 31.2% of direct scoring load overall in the 1998 Finals, compared to Barkley who was at 25.5% of the Suns' overall scoring load in the 1993 Finals.
That's a notable difference in Malone's favor, and shows that even under immense pressure he could be an elite scoring presence.
Hell, Malone's derided 1997 Finals scoring logs also show that he carried a heavier burden than Barkley in 1993 when looking at relative scoring %: Malone was at 27.2% of Utah's total offense in that series compared to Barkley's aforementioned 25.5% in the 1993 series.
It's also notable that Barkley had far more surrounding scoring help than Malone did when comparing their Finals appearances. Barkley had 3 different players score from between 15.8 and 17.2 PPG in that Finals.
Malone? Had not one player in either the 1997 or 1998nFinals score as much as 15.8 points per game as supplementary scoring.
In fact, in 1998's Finals, Utah's second leading scorers was Hornacek...with 10.7 points per game. All other Utah players averaged less than double-digit scoring in that series.
What this means, too, is that it was much easier for Chicago to focus on and load up on Malone in the post slots compared to someone like Barkley, yet Malone still showed the ability to carry elite scoring load under such pressure.
Yet Barkley is praised by casual fans while Malone is excoriated. The whole thing strikes me as incredibly unfair, dishonest and ultimately innumerate.
Your mileage may vary.

All that said, I would agree with you on one thing: since players like Karl Malone and teams like the 1997 and 1998 Utah Jazz are treated like historical jokes and outright trash by both average fans and the sports media, at some point there has to be a logical reconsideration of Jordan's place in history.
Utah came very, very close to defeating Chicago in two straight Finals, and have a very strong argument as the toughest opponent during the Bulls Dynasty. If Utah is such a poor team in a greater historical context, what does this say about Jordan?
Logically it says that he benefited from a weak era, and is massively overrated through that domination of weak competition.
This is compounded by a sports media that regularly ranks Malone quite low on all-time lists. The same with guys like Barkley and Stockton.
Only Malone, as a true contemporary of Jordan, consistently comes close on all-time lists when ranked next to guys like Durant and Curry.
The problem with this is these are just two big names that are part of LeBron's record and legacy. Add in a guy like Duncan, who is automatically treated as royalty compared to "losers" like Barkley or Malone, and massive questions have to be asked about how Jordan always ranks as the best player ever.
The logic gap in the way the media treats star players from Jordan's era -- as historically second or third-rate figures -- as opposed to Jordan himself (who is treated like a holy figure above all others, including today's players) is completely incoherent and mendacious.
At some point in time, logic will have to reign: if the top stars like Karl Malone during Jordan's reign are seen as historically pathetic, automatically ranking lower than guys like Curry, Durant and (likely soon) Giannis, then there's no way that Jordan should be treated like the unquestionable GOAT.

Yep Jordan had special treatment

@rafikz77 You forgot about the semi circle in the paint lol

Your understanding is just saltiness and bitterness at Jordan, Rab you troll

MORE EVIDENCE WHY WILT IS GOD AND OLAJUWON GOAT
DREAM WON RING WITH ROLE PLAYERS , CELTICS IT TOOK 9 HOF IN GAME 7 FOUR TIMES TO BEAT WILT.

@Zzz Vain all caps? someone got u in ur feelings.

Eveyone needs someone to win. No one can win by themselves

@David Schmidt OLAJUWON WON ALONE. SHOW ME 1 RING OF JORDAN ?