Andrew wrote:Even putting aside my Bulls bias, I'd say it was a great game between two great teams that came down to the wire; the kind of thing you want to see in the NBA Finals. There's Jordan's performance while feeling under the weather and on the road in one of the most difficult venues to win in (then and in recent seasons), the current and soon-to-be Hall of Famers involved and the meaningful nature of the game (a pivotal Game 5 in the NBA Finals) which are all significant factors but on top of that, I'd call it a really good game of basketball to watch.
If you're going to rank the flu game lower then frankly I think you've got to knock Wilt's 100 point game down a few notches, too. I know it sounds sacrilege to say that but if we're talking about the quality of the game then I don't know that it's the greatest game of all-time given that from all accounts, it turned into a complete farce in the final minutes with Wilt's teammates force feeding him the ball and the Knicks fouling on every trip down the floor, in a game where the result had long since been decided and become an afterthought. It's meaningful in that Wilt's 100 is a staggering record but as for the game itself? It doesn't sound like an all-time classic, the record aside it's a regular season blowout. I'd say it better fits the description of a game that isn't all that great outside one great individual performance.
Agreed, I wouldn't put Wilt's in the top 20 All-Time because it probably wasn't that good of a game. Same with Abdul-Jabbar achievement. Ditto with Willis Redd injury game.
As for Bulls-Jazz, you could argue there were numerous good games in those Finals series. Game 1 2007 MJ buzzer beater/Mailman choke, Game 5 2007 Flu Game/Mailman choke, Game 6 2007 Steve Kerr jumper, Game 5 2008 Mailman doesn't choke, Game 6 2008 MJ shot/Mailman choke. Obviously the Flu Game & Game 6 2008 stand out above the others for their defining moments/performances.
I'd put Nuggets-Supersonics 1st Round Game 5 1994 up there as a great game. The recent Bulls-Celtics playoff series had at least 1-2 great games in it.
But yes, I can understand an NBA Finals game being ranked higher than games that mean slightly less. But if that's the case, then Suns-Celtics triple OT must be up near top of list, as well as some of the classic Celtics-Lakers matchups & so on.
As for the Flu Game, Luc Longley was the unsung star of that one, keeping the Bulls within range for MJ to strike
But as you can see, I wanted Jazz to win in 1997 & 1998 as was a big fan of their teams.
But if you were to look at it the other way, if The Mailman had delivered with bad flu in game 5 & MJ had choked time & time again in the 4th quarter then I have no doubt that historians would not call it the #2 greatest NBA game of All-Time. Heck, even if it was Pippen (in my eyes he was the true 2007 Finals MVP) or Kukoc who had that same game as MJ did, it wouldn't have been considered top 2, maybe not even top 20. That's my problem with it, the obvious bias involved because it was MJ delivering.
Then again, I've probably got reverse bias & I'm being a bit overly harsh & shouldn't. In the end, history is always written from a winner's perspective, so be it I guess. If I have an issue I can just publish my own top 20 games of All-time
Was a good game though, just not the desired result 
