And became one of the most prolific scorers in history.
Indeed. Nobody is disputing that. However, there's clearly a ledge of efficiency when it comes to scoring. If a player scores 35 a game but has to take 30 shots to do it, sure the stat box says "35 pts", but he was not an asset for his team with that lack of efficiency.
Russell played when there was very little parity in the NBA.
Exactly.. most teams were loaded with the best talent at the time. Russell played against Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Willis Reed, Bob Petit, etc. All time Greats that his Celtics held down from championships. Today, with 30+ teams, while "scrubs" are better overall IMO, the elite talent is unsaturated and spread around the league over more teams quite a bit more.
Who? Good teams v. teams that matter.... That is the standard. Nobody worried about getting past the Bulls.
"Teams that matter"? You can't be attempting to talk about this subject and be this obtuse. the Bulls won 62 games in 2010 and made the Eastern Conference finals, and then went 50-16 the next year in a strike shortened season. They were regular high playoff seeds, top 4 in the East for years and made the Conference semis 3 times.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
And yet they didn't even make the finals....
If you have to create black and white measuring sticks to defend your position, well.. you're being a coward. They made the eastern conference finals and it took a miracle by Larry Johnson from the New York Knicks to keep them out. Bottom line, without Jordan, the Bulls were Finals contenders. That's a fact.
Warped?
Jordan-led Bulls won nearly as many games in his final year as the franchise won in four following years. It speaks to MJ's greatness.
It speaks to a team with MJ that also lost multiple hall of famers, including the greatest coach of all time.
You lack context, and it seems on purpose just to fluff your hero. He's worthy of most praise he gets, but seriously.. drop the mythical hero worship.
He is the greatest basketball player of all time. If someone doesn't think he is and they don't have some sort of mysterious hatred that you have toward him......they likely have him in the top three.
LOL. "If someone doesn't agree with my proclamation, they have a mysterious hatred"... what a warped delusional outlook you have on things.