The Five Biggest Misconceptions in NBA History

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3. The 90's Being A Strong Decade

I have heard numerous times how the 90's were a strong decade, mostly because of the dominant Bulls led by Michael Jordan. However, that is completely false.

The 90's, in reality, were one of the two weakest decades in the league's history, along with the 70's.

The league was watered down severely by numerous new expansion teams as the league wanted to grow and expand in cities teams didn't play in, such as Miami, Minnesota, Charlotte, and Orlando, who were all created in either 1989 or 1990. 

Besides the Bulls, who were still really good without Jordan, there wasn't another great team. The Rockets were good with Hakeem as they won two titles, but he never had a great cast and won purely on his greatness and the weakness of the era.

The Jazz had Stockton and Malone, but no one else and were average defensively. The Sonics were pretty good for a couple of years, but they needed more than just Payton and Kemp.

The Knicks never surrounded Ewing with a good supporting cast as well as San Antonio for Robinson until the very late 90's after Duncan became a superstar. 

2. The 1995-96 Bulls Being The Best Team Ever

The majority of people consider the 1995-96 Bulls team to be the best NBA single season team ever because they won a record 72 games that season.

While that team was amazing as it had Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc, Steve Kerr, Ron Harper and Luc Longley, it wasn't as great as the 1971-72 Lakers, the 1985 Lakers and the 1984 Celtics, who all had great big men, which would've dominated the weak centers the Bulls had. 

Personally, I think the 1985-86 Lakers is the greatest team ever. That team won 62 games, but in a much harder era and had Magic, Byron Scott, Worthy, Kareem, Bob McAdoo, Michael Cooper, Mitch Kupchak, Kurt Rambis, Mike McGee and Jamal Wilkes.

They beat the Celtics in six games to win the championship and they would've definitely beat the 72-win Bulls team as Kareem would've dominated Longley and the Bulls' other big men and the Lakers were deeper than the Bulls. 

The 1985 Lakers team averaged an amazing 118.2 points per game, while allowing an average 110.9 points per game, a 7.3-point differential.

They shot an unheard of 54.5 percent from the field as a team, ranking first in offensive rating for the season and seventh in defensive rating.

Overall, they would've dominated the Bulls inside, but they still had enough perimeter scoring from Magic, Worthy and Scott to form a balanced attack, too good for the great defensive Bulls to match. 

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