Kerr before the 2016 NBA Finals (Getty)
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has had enough and he is fighting back!
The former Chicago Bull learned that former Los Angeles Lakers trainer, Gary Vitti believes that Michael Jordan and the Bulls didn’t play anyone competitive during their six-championship run! “I love Michael and respect him, but I am not sure Michael changed the game as much as the game changed, which allowed Michael to be Michael,” said Gary Vitti told me last month on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
Steve Kerr has heard enough! “ I just wonder if Gary Vitti was equipped to handle that many injuries during his time,” Kerr playfully told NBA scribe Landon Buford.
“I question his ability to tape ankles.”
Vitti also stated some other interesting tidbits worth listening to via the Scoop B Radio Podcast. Like MJ’s place in history.
So when Michael got his first ring in ‘91 and the five that came after it, there wasn’t anybody left,” asserts Vitti.
He does have the perspective and has seen a lot, after all. He spent 32-years with the Lakers and made 12 NBA Finals trips with the Los Angeles Lakers, dating all the way back to 1984 under head coach Pat Riley.
“The Lakers were done because Kareem had retired and then Magic [Johnson] came up 0 positive for HIV in ‘91. So he wasn’t challenged again by the great Laker team, the ones that because Kareem had already retired before ‘91, so he wasn’t part of that series against I don’t know what they would have done.”
Vitti’s worked with Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
GettyMichael Jordan holds the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player trophy and former Chicago Bulls head coach Phil Jackson holds the NBA champions Larry O’Brian trophy after winning game six of the NBA Finals with the Utah Jazz.
But, coach Kerr has the last word, at least on this day. “I think Gary was always overrated,” he told Buford.
“And when you compare Gary to some of the other trainers and medical staff. He just didn’t have to deal with the adversity that the trainers have to deal with today.”
Yikes!