in primes who wins - m.jordan,p.maravich,w.reed,e.hayes,j.erving VS e.baylor,e.monroe,s.oneal,s.pippen,l.bird?

Question

an ongoing debate with a friend of mine as to who would win between these two teams of legends.

michael jordan,pistol pete,willis reed,elvin hayes,julius erving VS elgin baylor,earl monroe,shaquille oneal,scottie pippen,larry bird

Answer 1

I'd go with the first team. First of all, I believe that a match-up of two hall of fame teams is more or less even, much like the East vs. West in an All Star game. But any legends team that has a prime MJ on it has the advantage simply because of Jordan's unmatched competitiveness. MJ won't let his team lose especially when stakes are high.

In your dream match-up, Shaq has clear advantage over Reed and would definitely overpower the latter on offense. Reed, however, is the better rebounder and defender and he has that soft jumpshot from about 15 feet that would surely force Diesel out of that paint. If that happens, Elvin Hayes will have have a picnic down low where his turnaround jumper is unstoppable. Pippen will surely take on Jordan but he won't be able to shut MJ down. They go against each other every day in practice so MJ knows Pip inside out and surely knows how to get around him. In the power forward match-up, Larry Bird is definitely more talented than Hayes, but the Big E is bigger and has a better inside game than Bird, who'd surely try to draw Hayes out of the paint with his perimeter game. Baylor and Erving cancels each other out, so does Maravich and Monroe. There goes my take and, as I've said, I pick MJ's team to win.

Answer 2

First team would win for sure. If you put "pistol" Pete's passing with air mike's and the doc high flying ability, it would be dunks galore.