NBA Tournament of Champions: Michael Jordan Bracket Finals

I know it's been like a month since I started this tournament, but I'm still kind of in mourning. I have a feeling somewhere, LeBron fanboys are going on about how "LeBron is the greatest ever! Michael wouldn't be able to take him!" based on the most recent Heat team taking out both the '92 and '93 Bulls (something my friend Nathaniel has also been lamenting). They get a totally different monster this time in one of the Celtics' 80's champs. Should be fun.

To remind those of you new to the process, this series will be a best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court going to the team with the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. If you want to see how we got here, first and second round results can be found at the provided links. Let's get cracking.

'13 Miami Heat (82-23) vs '84 Boston Celtics (74-28)
Game 1: @ '13 Heat 106, '84 Celtics 82 (MIA leads 1-0)
Game 2: @ '13 Heat 117, '84 Celtics 101 (MIA leads 2-0)
Game 3: '13 Heat 122, @ '84 Celtics 92 (MIA leads 3-0)
Game 4: @ '84 Celtics 105, '13 Heat 87 (MIA leads 3-1)
Game 5: @ '13 Heat 94, '84 Celtics 93 (MIA wins 4-1)
Full disclosure: Kevin McHale doesn't get enough minutes in the default depth chart, so I upped his minutes a little bit and tried to shift Larry Bird around some. It didn't really help. LeBron came out guns blazing and with plenty of help from Wade and Bosh and the rest of his supporting cast, the Heat advanced in pretty convincing fashion. Game 5 was a classic though. With time winding down, Larry Bird knocked down a jumper that gave the Celtics the lead and needed one stop to go back to the Boston Garden. LeBron didn't want to go back though, and hit a shot as time expired to beat the C's and advance to the round of 8.

To see the updated bracket, click here.

I'm not sure how much of this is a recency bias, but LeBron's two talented title teams have both advanced out of the bracket stage. At this point, we need to decide which 5 players get to make the Michael Jordan All Bracket Team. Included with each player are their per game averages for major stats, plus shooting splits (field goals/threes/free throws). Those guys are below:

• PG: Magic Johnson ('87 LAL, 12 G): 21.2 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 12.1 APG, 0.5 BPG, 1.3 SPG; 53/50/93
• SG: Michael Jordan ('93 CHI, 9 G): 30.4 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 4.8 APG, 1.0 BPG, 2.3 SPG; 48/50/92
• SF: LeBron James ('13 MIA, 17G): 25.7 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 6.4 APG, 1.8 BPG, 1.6 SPG; 55/30/73
• PF: Larry Bird ('84 BOS, 16 G): 21.3 PPG, 12.3 RPG, 5.9 APG, 1/4 BPG, 1.7 SPG; 48/36/91
• C: Robert Parish ('84 BOS, 16 G): 20.5 PPG, 10.3 RPG, 1.9 APG, 1.8 BPG, 0.9 SPG; 53/NA/83

Michael Jordan Bracket MVP: LeBron James ('13 MIA). Sure, he had some off games, but by and large when the Heat needed him to step up, he did. His key scoring bursts in Games 3 and 4 in the opening round against the '92 Bulls were a big factor, as were his 35 point outings in the opener and finale of this series.

Tomorrow I get to play out one of the other really good matchups that this round provides. Two elite centers enter the arena, only one gets to move on. Which team from the early 70's gets to advance? Come back in the morning to find out!