Michael Jordan doesn’t talk an awful lot to the media. However, the NBA legend and current Hornets owner loves cigars and didn’t mince words when a cigar magazine asked about super teams and the current state of the NBA. One of the best — well, top five for sure — players in NBA history spoke to Cigar Aficionado magazine recently for a cover story and talked about far more than just his favorite sticks.
Jordan’s comments included a question about free agents forming superteams in the NBA. The issue of superteams came to the forefront of NBA discussion in 2010 when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined the Heat, and it’s still a topic looming over the league as teams try to gear up to beat the Warriors, who have built a superteam like no other in history, at their own game.
Jordan, whose Hornets are certainly not a superteam, was blunt in his assessment of the league, saying it’s damaging the competitive balance of the NBA and that it creates a few teams at the very top that are great and a bunch of teams that are “going to be garbage,” per an excerpt tweeted out by Sports Illustrated‘s Ben Golliver.
Michael Jordan expresses major concerns over NBA's Superteam era in a Cigar Aficionado cover story: "28 teams that are going to be garbage" pic.twitter.com/zf68TWCUxW
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) October 12, 2017
“I think it’s going to hurt the overall aspect of the league from a competitive standpoint,” Jordan said. “You’re going to have one or two teams that are going to be great, and another 28 teams that are going to be garbage. Or they’re going to have a tough time surviving in the business environment.”
It’s important to note that Jordan isn’t just speaking as a former player here, but also as an owner. Which actually makes the point a bit more striking, given that he would seem to be calling the Charlotte Hornets garbage.
It’s more complicated than that, though. In fact, Jordan is probably exaggerating a bit. We’ve seen players flow to four or maybe five teams this summer — Oklahoma City, Houston, Boston and Minnesota among them. Add in the Warriors and Cavaliers and that makes it more likely that 24 NBA teams are garbage, at least this season.
So that’s not as bad! I think everyone expects another Warriors/Cavs NBA Final, but that doesn’t mean other teams will have a chance to win a few games in the regular season and even make some noise in the playoffs.
