Comparative Advantage

Michael Jordan was the best basketball player on every Chicago Bulls roster he ever played on. He was also the best defender, the best passer-in-clutch situations, and the best at almost every individual skill the game tracked. By any measure of absolute talent, the rational thing was to give Jordan the ball the toughest defensive match-up and every shot that mattered. The Bulls did the opposite. From 1991 onward, head coach Phil Jackson handed Scotty Pippen the assignment of guarding the other team's most dangerous perimeter player. Pippen made the NBA all-defensive first team eight consecutive seasons. He covered Magic Johnson, Drexler, Peyton, and a young Kobe Bryant. Jordan was freed up to roam off ball, jump passing lanes, and conserve legs for the offensive end. The result was six championships in eight seasons, two three peats.