I agree with most on here, if you take a prime Jordan & place him & his BEST team up against the 86' Celtics in a 7 game series, at best they win 2 games & at worst they get swept! So in that aspect if Jordan plays like Jordan but never wins a ring just as Charles Barkley, Ewing,Malone & Stockton never done would we be calling him the greatest ever? That's a emphatic NO. Jordan benefitted from Bird's bonespurs problem coupled with Bias death. So I guess it was meant for him to win something because look how things broke open for him with these events (Magic HIV) & (Lewis death). But if those 4 significant things never happened & things progressed naturally Jordan would be a loveable loser just like his buddy Sir Charles because he wasn't going to win a thing!