In his 2021 book “Unguarded,” Scottie Pippen criticizes Michael Jordan for taking too much credit for the six championships the duo won together with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.
Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd of the Seattle Storm share a similar dynamic to what Jordan and Pippen had, but they lack the animosity.
Stewart is the best player in the world, like Jordan was, and while it’s unfair to compare her to Jordan this early in her career when she is still four championship shy of six, she has, so far, won the title and Finals MVP award every season in which she has been healthy for the playoffs from age 23 on. Jordan won the title and the Finals MVP award every full season he played in from age 27 to age 34, so Stewart is already trending in the right direction.
The fact that Stewart has been able to have this stretch of so far two seasons and Jordan had it for six seasons creates a mystique surrounding them and we tend to sensationalize the individual superstar. But Pippen was ranked as the 32nd best player in NBA history by The Athletic in February. Had he been the 32nd best player of his generation that still would have been good enough to more or less be the best player on the worst team in the league — still a No. 1 guy even if for a poor squad. But he is the 32nd best player of all-time, meaning he could have easily been the No. 1 guy for a far better team. He probably does deserve more credit for all those championships! And with Loyd, many wonder if she could be a No. 1 player on another team.
The reason I think of Jordan and Pippen when I think of Stewart of Loyd isn’t because Stewart and Loyd are as great (yet) — and there have certainly have been greater WNBA duos; it’s because I thought of them in 2021 and for the first half of 2022 as clearly above the third-best player on their team. Not necessarily saying that Dennis Rodman (the 62nd best player in NBA history according to The Athletic) wasn’t close to Pippen in terms of greatness, because based on rebounding and defense he arguably was. But the Jordan/Pippen dynamic is ingrained in my brain and in our culture. They are referred to together and without Rodman ad nauseam, truly the basketball embodiment of Batman and Robin.
And with Sue Bird still being great but starting to inevitably decline with age and with Tina Charles in a Storm uniform not yet a reality, Stewart and Loyd could have been seen as the WNBA’s Batman and Robin for that stretch. And Loyd is…
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