Harper v. BJ – probably a wash in terms of ability at that point, but BJ’s shooting and pressure d is more valuable than Harper’s versatility.

Jordan v. Jordan – 29 MJ was better than 33 MJ. The system might favor older MJ some because he could work out of the post more and spend less energy trying to score, but he would also be more susceptible to foul trouble because ’93 Jordan drove the hole more.

Pippen v. Pippen – Total wash. Same basic skillset, same basic roll. ’93 may have been slightly quicker and ’96 slightly stronger, but basically Scottie’s prime was ’93 – ’96.

Rodman v. Grant – This one is debatable, but I really think Horace’s ability to space the floor is a little more useful in this matchup than Rodman’s superior rebounding – mostly because Grant was also a good rebounder. With MJ ’93 driving and kicking, Grant’s ability to step away was handy. Of course with MJ ’96 drawing weakside help in the post Worm’s ability to gobble boards was a big deal too. Grant did tend to give higher minutes.

Longley v. Cartwright – Luc was a much better fit for the triangle. Neither could catch, but at least Luc could pass and shoot. Both were tough defenders but not shotblockers. Neither was much of a 1 on 1 threat at that point. Luc was younger and gave longer minutes, but Cartwright had better backups.

The ’96 team had slightly better depth. Kukoc is better than Scott Williams, and Kerr and Paxson offset each other. Purdue and King were more useful than Wennington and Caffee, but not by much.

Here’s an idea – ’93 Phil Jackson puts ’93 Pippen on ’96 Jordan. Now Scottie’s length might pull Jordan out of the post. And actually ’93 Jordan pressuring ’96 Pippen might be more effective than a head to head match-up too. If super intense on-ball ’93 Jordan can disrupt ’96 point forward Pippen, and ’93 Pippen can make ’96 Jordan a face up player… that seems pretty disruptive to the ’96 offense.

On the other hand, what happens when the ’96 team puts out a line-up of Harp, MJ, Pip, Kukoc, and Dennis? Do the ’93 big men have the chops to take advantage of the small front line? Alonzo Mourning wasn’t able to get the best of Worm, so I’m doubtful that Cartwright or King could. They don’t have the personnel to go small to match up. Their best bet would be BJ, MJ, Pip, Ho, and Scott Williams. Grant would not like playing Toni at the three point line, and Dennis would abuse Williams on the glass and probably get him kicked out of the game after about 7 minutes of chatting and holding and bumping him.

It would be unfair to pit a team from today (2006 Heat, to use Neil's example) against a team from the 50s/60s. I somehow made it seem like it would be unfair to pit two teams from the 50s/60s against each other.

Also, I still feel that the 96 Bulls' point differential was slightly inflated due to the NBA having two new franchises that debuted that season, making the 93 Bulls' upset slightly less improbable.

The most fun Jordan, at least for pure stat nerd fantasy stuff, is the 87-88 version. Dude goes nuts against just about anybody. Not uncommon for him to rip out 7 steals, 4 blocks, and 45 points on a retarded FG% and 1 or 2 TOs.

Also, just as it is in the NFL, the players in today's NBA are so much bigger and more athletic than their 50s/60s counterparts that it would really be unfair to pit two teams from those eras against each other without some sort of era-specific balancing magic.

Seeing as no version of Michael has had a stratospheric sim yet, I'm bracing for a Spurs win.

Uh, the 09 lakers got taken to a 7th game by the rockets w/o Yao and T-Mac. What makes them so great?