Here’s further evidence that not everyone can run a sports team.
A Chicago Bulls fan wrote the Chicago Sun-Times in 1987 urging the team to trade Michael Jordan to the Boston Celtics for Larry Bird in a straight-up swap. Freezing Cold Takes unearthed this nearly 20-year-old gem Thursday and shared it on Twitter.
1987: Bulls fan Phil Simpson suggests in @Suntimes that the Bulls trade Jordan for an ageing Larry Bird. pic.twitter.com/WrovqXckiY
— Freezing Cold Takes (@OldTakesExposed) June 1, 2017
At the time, Bird already had led the Celtics to NBA championships in 1981, 1984 and 1986 and was a two-time NBA MVP. Jordan had led the NBA in scoring the previous season, but the Bulls won just 40 regular-season games and the Celtics swept them in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Injuries would curtail the final years of Bird’s career, leading to his (relatively) early retirement in 1992.
Jordan (and this fan) would suffer playoff heartbreak until 1991, when he finally led Chicago to a championship. Jordan, of course, then won five more titles before leaving Chicago for good in 1998, and many consider him to be the greatest player of all time.
In short, don’t ever trade the greatest player of all time.
Thumbnail photo via Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports Images
