Debunking the 1-9 without pippen argument

 

"Michael Jordan was 1-9 in the playoffs before the Chicago Bulls acquired Scottie Pippen in 1988"....this is the criticism that non-stop circles Michael Jordans NBA career. And considering Jordan is the greatest player to ever touch the hardwood his career will always be under inspection. 1-9 seems bad at face value but taking a deeper look into this assessment it's not hard to find the cherry picking here. 

In 1985 Jordan lost in the first round to the Milwaukee Bucks winning just 1 of the 4 games leaving him with a 1-3 playoff record before having to face Larry Bird's Celtics. When the Bulls and the Celtics matched up in 1986 and 1987 Chicago was swept both times now leaving Jordan with a 1-9 playoff record before Pippen arrived and that's about as much entail as people will ever tell you. However, despite the lack of context there are a couple things that make this an illogical statent.

 1.) 1988 season: Pippen is the man that supposedly quote on quote "saved Jordan's legacy". Because of this assessing the type of player Pippen was for Chicago in 1988 should be a good starting point. Pippen in the 1987-88 NBA regular season would perform in 79 games...and wasn't a starter in any of them. Yes Pippen would not start in a single game that Regular Season but somehow, someway a bench player would go on to ''save" Jordan's playoff career. Pippen in 1988 was not yet the Pippen we would come to recognize him as. He would put up statistical numbers of 7.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists on 48.9% TS while having a negative box plus minus.

These numbers guide us to the conclusion that Pippen wasn't that valuable of a player for Chicago. So now we can dive into the playoffs. During the 1st round of the 1988 NBA Playoffs the Bulls would come head to head with  Mark Price and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Something that is worthy of a mention  here is Pippen was only a starter for ONE game in this 5 game series. So off the bat it doesn't make sense how a non-starter could save the teams best player.

Pippen in Game 1 would go scoreless while MJ was busy dropping 50 points on over 54% shooting in an 11 point win. Pippen in the very next game would have 8 points while this time Jordan was busy scoring 55 points on over 53% shooting while also having 4 steals. Til this day Jordan is still the only player to score 50 points in back to back playoff games. So now it's getting even more difficult to understand the narrative that Jordan got "saved". Pippen in the next 3 games would have 6 points, 15 points, and 24 points. Jordan would have 38 points, 44 points, and 39 points. Looking at there statistical numbers as a whole that series Jordan led Pippen in points (by over 30) assists, rebounds, steals, blocks, and FG%

These stats guide us to the fact that we have seen Jordan make it out of the first round with Pippen being a bench player. But among everything stated we can see MJ didn't make it out of the first round because of Pippen. He made it out of the 1st round because he averaged 45-5-5 on 55% shooting and put on a complete scoring clinic as only 1 other player in the NBA history has averaged 45 PPG in a playoff series. So Pippen didn't save Jordan in no way shape or form. It's not possible to save a guy when the guy averages more points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, on better FG%. Nobody gets saved while averaging 45 points per game. 

2.) Competition: When the Bulls would acquired Jordan in 1984 they were a 27-55 team with the teams best players being Woolridge and Dailey. Those are two players that were wrapped up in the leagues rapid cocaine problem at the time. So Jordan was drafted to a team that i can only describe as a train wreck.  

In Jordan's rookie season he would go on to add 11 wins to the Bulls previous season record and he was the lone star on the team. The Chicago Bulls would stand at 7th in the Eastern Conference leaving them to face off against a 59 win team in the Milwaukee Bucks. This team had  Terry Cummings who was top 5 in MVP voting, Sidney Moncrief. who made All Defensive 1st team  as well as All NBA 2nd team. 

And on top of this  Paul Pressey who was on the All Defensive 1st team. So Pressey and Moncreif both made All Defensive 1st team and they both play the same position as Jordan. But somehow a rookie 21 year old Jordan proceed to launch numbers of 29.3 PPG,  8.5 AST,  5.8 REB  56.5% TS. Not to mention this team was also 2nd in defense statistically and 6th in offense. The Bucks had 2 players averaging over 26 PPG this series. Jordan in this series simply was not standing with the talent to lead the Bulls past this Bucks team.  

The Following Season in 1986 Jordan would face off against they Larry Birds Boston Celtics. The 86' Celtics are consistently acknowledge as a top 5 team in NBA history and rightfully so. Larry Bird describes the 86' Celtics as "the best Celtics team he was ever a part of". They were a 67 win team that stood near the the top of the league in offense and defense. Larry Bird would win his 2nd straight MVP this year and Boston also had all star Kevin McHale a guy who would also make All Defensive 1st team and Dennis Johnson another member of the All defensive team to and to cap off the this dominate team they also had Robert Parish who was named to an all star spot. There was 5 hall of famers on this roster.

But this is the team people were expecting a 22 year old sophomore to beat when returning from a broken foot? Doesn't seem to realistic...

Despite this Jordan still averaged 43 points on 50% shooting and had a 63 point performance in the Garden during game 2 which is one of the most known playoff performances in the NBA's history. This performance was so stunning that Larry Bird called him God in disguise. Bird would later in his book say it wasn't that Jordan was losing all those years it's just that he didn't have the team around him to win. People also forget Jordan had 49 points in game 1 and was 1 assists shy of a triple double in game 3.

Boston when facing the Bulls in the playoffs had 2 players averaging over 28 PPG and 5 players averaging over 17 PPG...however, on the other hand, aside from Jordan the Bulls had Woolridge averaging 21 a game and everyone else averaged 12 or less. Jordan this series notched numbers of 43.7 PPG, 6.3 REB, 5.7 assists, 2.3 STLs, 50.5% FG.

And Just before game 1 started in his pregame interview Jordan would say "I think it's has to be more of a 5 man game. We really have to play a complete basketball game.. i don't think 1 man can beat the Boston Celtics" and Jordan would prove himself right as although MJ played great this would be another example of Jordan not having the pieces around him to take down such a great team. This Boston team would also go on to win the 1986 championship. Even if Pippen was there in Jordans 1st 3 years what difference would it make?

The very next year Jordan would once again face Boston were Kevin McHale and Bird would both average more than 26 PPG. Jordan would once again play great and average 36-6-7 along with 2 steals and 2 blocks. But unfortunately Jordan would once again lose to a to talented Celtics roster. By 1987 the Bulls would let go of Woolridge and Dailey so Jordan didn't even have decent scorers this time around. 

But with all the amazing performances, underarmed teammates, legendary competition, and other things what weight does it even hold to bring up Jordan's 1-9 record...