Who would you have given the '88 MVP to?

[Fatal9]

Jordan won over Bird in a pretty close race. This MVP would have marked Bird's fourth is five years.

Bird put up 30/9/6 on 52.7% (41.4% from three so insane scoring efficiency), Jordan put up 35/5.5/6 on 53.5%. Per 36 minutes (because Jordan played a couple of minutes more) stats are, 28/9/6 for Bird, 31/5/5 for Jordan. Bird was a superior offensive player imo, his feel for the game was much better than Jordan's at this point in MJ's career.

Celtics were the #1 seed in the conference with 57 wins (they were 2-4 without Bird, so they easily would have crossed 60 wins quite easily with him). Bulls were #4 seed with 50 wins. Before people play the "team card", please keep in mind that McHale was out for over a month due to surgery, Parish had his worst season of the decade, DJ was on his last legs.

Lets try to keep crap like "Jordan won DPOY though!" out of here because there is NO way in hell he deserved that over Hakeem. Classic showcase of how hype wins these type of awards (Lebron was freaking #2 this year, did you see his defense in the Magic series?!). Always irked me how the award went to Jordan when it really wasn't his time yet (was Bird's last great season before the injuries) and he probably didn't deserve it based on how the award has been handed out traditionally.

[DonDadda59]

Kobe should've won it in '88.

[Lebron23]

Kobe should've won it in '88.

The Immortal One

[OldSchoolBBall]

Jordan won over Bird in a pretty close race. This MVP would have marked Bird's fourth is five years.

Bird put up 30/9/6 on 52.7% (41.4% from three so insane scoring efficiency), Jordan put up 35/5.5/6 on 53.5%. Per 36 minutes (because Jordan played a couple of minutes more) stats are, 28/9/6 for Bird, 31/5/5 for Jordan. Bird was a superior offensive player imo, his feel for the game was much better than Jordan's at this point in MJ's career.

Celtics were the #1 seed in the conference with 57 wins (they were 2-4 without Bird, so they easily would have crossed 60 wins quite easily with him). Bulls were #4 seed with 50 wins. Before people play the "team card", please keep in mind that McHale was out for over a month due to surgery, Parish had his worst season of the decade, DJ was on his last legs.

Lets try to keep crap like "Jordan won DPOY though!" out of here because there is NO way in hell he deserved that over Hakeem. Classic showcase of how hype wins these type of awards (Lebron was freaking #2 this year, did you see his defense in the Magic series?!). Always irked me how the award went to Jordan when it really wasn't his time yet (was Bird's last great season before the injuries) and he probably didn't deserve it based on how the award has been handed out traditionally.

LMAO @ the constant agenda. MJ had one of the 5 best single seasons of all time that year. Get this nonsense out of here.

[Indian guy]

Kobe.

[nnn123]

Lets try to keep crap like "Jordan won DPOY though!" out of here because there is NO way in hell he deserved that over Hakeem. Classic showcase of how hype wins these type of awards

So even if one were to admit that Jordan didn't deserve DPOY (which isn't true) shall we still ignore the fact that he was a significantly better defender than Bird? Shouldn't that at least count in the argument, or was Jordan's lockdown D something that the "MJ stans" just imagined?

[Papaya Petee]

LMAO @ the constant agenda. MJ had one of the 5 best single seasons of all time that year. Get this nonsense out of here.

Are you trying to say Bird did not have a absolutely insane season?

[ShaqAttack3234]

Regardless of whether you feel he deserved defensive player of the year award, he was still a much better defender than Bird. Jordan's team won 50 games despite Michael not having much of a supporting cast. Jordan sure didn't have a player like Kevin McHale on his team. McHale, Parish, Ainge and DJ were still a strong supporting cast.

[juju151111]

Jordan won over Bird in a pretty close race. This MVP would have marked Bird's fourth is five years.

Bird put up 30/9/6 on 52.7% (41.4% from three so insane scoring efficiency), Jordan put up 35/5.5/6 on 53.5%. Per 36 minutes (because Jordan played a couple of minutes more) stats are, 28/9/6 for Bird, 31/5/5 for Jordan. Bird was a superior offensive player imo, his feel for the game was much better than Jordan's at this point in MJ's career.

Celtics were the #1 seed in the conference with 57 wins (they were 2-4 without Bird, so they easily would have crossed 60 wins quite easily with him). Bulls were #4 seed with 50 wins. Before people play the "team card", please keep in mind that McHale was out for over a month due to surgery, Parish had his worst season of the decade, DJ was on his last legs.

Lets try to keep crap like "Jordan won DPOY though!" out of here because there is NO way in hell he deserved that over Hakeem. Classic showcase of how hype wins these type of awards (Lebron was freaking #2 this year, did you see his defense in the Magic series?!). Always irked me how the award went to Jordan when it really wasn't his time yet (was Bird's last great season before the injuries) and he probably didn't deserve it based on how the award has been handed out traditionally.

No way in hell he deserved over Hakeem????? Also MJ defense added to his stats clearly means he was the MVP

[Younggrease]

Kobe.

9 year old Kobe was at least as skilled as anyone in that weak era...

[T-bomb 25]

9 year old Kobe was at least as skilled as anyone in that weak era...

This era is the weakest moron.

[DonDadda59]

Kobe stans trying to rewrite history as usual. Nothing you can do that can change the facts. Get over it already.

[plowking]

Jordan should have won it.

Though on another note, I hope this educates fans that Bird was better than Magic. I'm tired of seeing Magic placed above Birds on all time lists when it's hardly the truth.

[juju151111]

Jordan should have won it.

Though on another note, I hope this educates fans that Bird was better than Magic. I'm tired of seeing Magic placed above Birds on all time lists when it's hardly the truth.

Yea nice Opinion their.

[guy]

So even if one were to admit that Jordan didn't deserve DPOY (which isn't true) shall we still ignore the fact that he was a significantly better defender than Bird? Shouldn't that at least count in the argument, or was Jordan's lockdown D something that the "MJ stans" just imagined?

This. As far as the wins argument goes, Jordan had a significantly worse supporting cast but they only lost 7 less games. Of course it wouldn't have been a crime if Bird were MVP that year, but Jordan was very deserving of that MVP.