Let's skip the stuff about how basketball is a team game and bring on what everyone really wants: Charles Barkley vs. Michael Jordan, one on one, eyeball to eyeball, scalp to scalp, for the NBA title.
How about a best-of-7 series just between those two? Clear off the floor and let them play to 100 halfcourt with schoolyard rules and no refs, go dunk for dunk, 3-pointer for 3-pointer, rebound for rebound. Let's see if Barkley can muscle Jordan underneath or if Jordan can fly over Barkley's head.And get those microphones up close to listen to their trash talk, good, cutting taunts between friends, verbal one-upmanship to match anything they do near the hoop.
Does anyone really want to see a duel of second-rate centers, Chicago's Bill Cartwright against Phoenix's Mark West, or a matchup of point guards, Chicago's B.J. Armstrong against Kevin Johnson?
No, the thrill here goes beyond teamwork into the realm of individual brilliance, where only the special reside. In the NBA, the two who are special are Sir Charles and His Airness.
Will it happen, will they truly go mano a mano, from start to finish when the finals begin here Wednesday? Regrettably, not a chance. Oh, Barkley and Jordan, old Olympic buddies, will hack against each other on the golf course between games, wagers on the side. But when they get on the court they'll keep their distance even though they're both about the same height.
Look for Phoenix to pit Dan Majerle on Jordan, a mismatch that could let His Airness score 40 or 50 a game if his wrist isn't still bothering him, or even if it is.
And look for Chicago to hound Barkley with Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen, one to bump him inside, the other to chase him outside.
Sure, there will be moments when Barkley and Jordan collide, times when they'll switch off to face each other or go after the same loose balls. But mostly they'll be squaring off across the court from each other, trying to match shots in an accelerated game of H-O-R-S-E.
"Michael is a great player, and I'm a great player," Barkley said after notching 44 points and 24 rebounds Saturday against Seattle. "We'll get our points. But the other players will determine the championship series. It won't be me or Michael.
"It'll be Scottie Pippen for Chicago. Or Kevin Johnson or Dan Majerle or Tom Chambers or Danny Ainge for us. We're here because of the other guys. This ain't about two guys and The Little Sisters of the Crippled."
Well, yes, but it's these particular two guys, Charles and Michael, who at any moment can take over a game as no one else in the NBA. And it's because of these two guys that the nation will be watching. If the anonymous Sonics had gone to the finals, the TV ratings might have rivaled the typical mid-season game of the week.
The Bulls and Suns split two games this year, oddly with the winner both times on the loser's court. In the first game in Phoenix in November, Jordan scored 40 points and handed off seven assists while the Bulls won 128-111. The Bulls also blocked 11 shots. Barkley scored 22 and Majerle had 20.
When they met again in early March in Chicago, Phoenix won 113-109 thanks to an extraordinary 27 points from small forward Cedric Ceballos, now out with a broken left foot. Barkley had 26 points and 10 rebounds, and Kevin Johnson had 23 points and a season-high 16 points. Jordan had 44 points, but didn't get enough support from Pippen, held to 19 points by Ceballos.
No one can conclude from those games that either team is definitely superior, though it's evident that Phoenix has no one who can contain Jordan. Majerle may have made the NBA's defensive second-team, but Jordan is beyond the first. Similarly, no one on Phoenix may be able to stop Pippen.
Maybe, but the Bulls didn't have that kind of trouble the last couple of times against Phoenix.
It all makes for messy speculation, a factoring of many possibilities and matchups, offensive styles and defensive strategies. Wouldn't it be simpler and more exciting if all the players and coaches would just step aside and let Barkley and Jordan take the ball and court themselves?