NBA Tournament of Champions: George Mikan Bracket Finals

In some ways I feel bad for poor George Mikan. He was the dominant force in the NBA in the early 50's until the league changed things around, then was commissioner of the ABA and botched a chance to bring Kareem into his league's fold. Even so, there's still the drill named after him that all aspiring big men should practice often, so I guess it's not all bad. Unfortunately for him though, all his title teams were promptly wiped aside in the opening rounds of the Tournament of Champions. Heck, of his three title teams in this bracket, only one managed to avoid a sweep! Instead, we get a battle between a power of the late 80's and their Eastern Conference foil that would overtake them a couple years later and give birth to the last great NBA dynasty.

So to decide which of this archrivals gets to advance in the tournament, we stick to the best of seven series (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. You can see results from the first and second round at the provided links. Now, let's play some (simulated) basketball.

'91 Chicago Bulls (76-23) vs '89 Detroit Pistons (78-21)
Game 1: '91 Bulls 113, @ '89 Pistons 74 (CHI leads 1-0)
Game 2: '91 Bulls 119, @ '89 Pistons 99 (CHI leads 2-0)
Game 3: @ '91 Bulls 117, '89 Pistons 108 (CHI leads 3-0)
Game 4: @ '91 Bulls 113, '89 Pistons 95 (CHI wins 4-0)

I think the image at the right serves as an apt description for what happened here. I figured the Pistons would put up more of a fight, though their stiff competition through the first couple rounds was the '73 Knicks. Ultimately though, the end result wasn't much of a surprise. By '91, I think the Bulls had had enough of Detroit. MJ went off in Games 1 and 2 to shut up the Palace. Scottie exploded in Game 3 to help MJ (who was still keeping a good pace), and Horace Grant brought his A-game in the finale to complete the sweep. It was such a blowout at the end that, yes, Isiah, Laimbeer and company were not on the floor, so it's entirely possible they decided to be jack***es again.

To see the updated bracket, click here.

I feel kind of like a semblance of order has been restored to the universe. That said, given how the MJ Bracket turned out I'm nervous about the quarterfinal matchup, but that comes later. For now we have to sort through how this bracket turned out and hand out some awards. For the below players listed who were the best at their positions throughout the bracket stage, I'm giving per game averages and shooting percentages (field goals/threes/free throws). So here's the George Mikan All Bracket Team:

• PG: Isiah Thomas ('89 DET, 13 G): 20.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 9.5 APG, 0.3 BPG, 1/5 SPG; 46/28/85
• SG: Michael Jordan ('91 CHI, 14 G): 29.1 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 6.7 APG, 1.2 BPG, 1.6 SPG; 52/20/88
• SF: Scottie Pippen ('91 CHI, 14 G): 18.1 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 5.4 APG, 1.5 BPG, 2.5 SPG; 52/25/71
• PF: Horace Grant ('91 CHI, 14 G): 14.1 PPG, 10.4 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.2 BPG, 0.9 SPG; 60/NA/82
• C: George Mikan ('52 MIN, 5 G): 27.0 PPG, 14.8 RPG, 3.4 APG, 3.2 BPG, 1.6 SPG; 42/43/86

George Mikan Bracket MVP: Michael Jordan, '91 CHI. Who else? You could make a good argument for Pippen, who played the second banana role to perfection; scoring when he needed to and providing a great floor game at both ends. But MJ also had a ton of really good floor games, dishing the ball when he needed to or coming up with big rebounds while also doing the main workload of scoring.

Tomorrow we're back at it again. This one is a very interesting battle as an oft-forgotten elite center at his apex faces off against one of the best single season teams of the 90's. Can MJ put another team in the quarterfinals? Come back tomorrow and find out!