Michael Jordan didn’t have the easiest path to becoming a champion. The Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons were the two major obstacles His Airness overcame to claim his first NBA championship, but what if he had failed at an earlier stage again? Apart from the Pistons, yet another rivalry that the Bulls had was with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the Jordan era. And MJ’s Bulls emerged on the top every single time these rivals matched up. However, former LA Lakers star James Worthy has claimed he could have changed this scenario.
Appearing on the ‘Dan Patrick Show’, Worthy, who spent his entire career with the Lakers, was asked if he ever wondered what life would have been like had he landed with the Cavaliers. Interestingly, in 1980, the Lakers traded Don Ford and a 1980 1st round pick to the Cavs in exchange for Butch Lee and a 1982 1st round pick, which the Lakers used to draft Worthy. “… Cleveland had some really good teams. It was just because of Michael Jordan that they didn’t advance. So it might have been. They’d have had me to guard Michael. They might have advanced to the Finals,” he replied. Notably, Cavs vs Bulls has been one of the popular NBA rivalries, especially during Jordan’s era.
The two teams clashed 5 times in the postseason while Jordan was on the team, and the Bulls emerged victorious every time. The closest that the Cavs came to winning was in the 1988 and 1989 playoffs. At the time, the first round of playoffs consisted of 5 games. This round went up to Game 5 between the Bulls and Cave In both the said seasons. In fact, Game 5 in 1989 between the two teams was a nail-biter, as Jordan claimed the victory with an iconic buzzer-beater.
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If Worthy’s claim is hypothetically believed to be true, then the Cavs surely made a mistake giving their 1982 first-round draft pick. Worthy went on to win 3 championships with the Lakers and was awarded NBA Finals MVP in 1988. But let’s have a closer look at how accurate is his claim of advancing the Cavs to finals against the Bulls.
Could James Worthy have changed the outcome for the Cavs against Michael Jordan’s Bulls?
As per Worthy’s claim on the Dan Patrick Show, he would’ve used the tactic of getting verbal with Mike. However, even he was not sure of the efficiency of this tactic. If the records and MJ’s competitiveness say anything, it’s that his game only gets better against trash talk.Although there’s no concrete way of analyzing Worthy’s claim, looking closely at their face off may paint a clearer picture. As per stats available on Land Of Basketball, the two players clashed with each other 19 times. Of these 19 games, 15 were in the regular season, where Worthy had a lead of 9-6. But when it came to playoffs MJ had a 3-1 lead over the former Lakers star. However, when it comes to stats in these face-offs, His Airness surpasses James in every aspect. This includes points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks per game. So the likeliness of Worthy stopping MJ in the playoffs with the Cavs does not seem to be very high.
