Here's the deal. Jordan was the greatest player of all time. Bottom line, end of story.
But for Jordan's first three years in the league (1984-1987), but Bulls were not even a .500 team. It's a fact people don't pay much attention to. They won 38, 30 and 40 games. But all three years, having a below .500 record was enough for the Bulls to make the playoffs with a low seed. Naturally, the Boston Celtics (at their apex) were better than a below .500 team.
If the internet had existed in the same capacity during JOrdan's early years, the media would have ripped him apart. His first 3 years he was out in the first round... his team wasn't even good enough to get over .500. It wasn't until Pippen arrived that they even turned into a 50 win team. Then of course there were the 3 next years that they were owned by the Pistons.
It's kinda like LeBron right now. LeBron finally won his first championship coincidentally at the same age as Jordan when he won his first title. LeBron very well could go on to win multiple titles... and then decades from now someone will post a video showing how Paul Pierce "owned" LeBron James... Those Cavs teammates stunk about as bad as those early Bulls teammates surrounding Jordan. It doesn't take away from what Jordan eventually accomplished and what LeBron is potentially about to accomplish.
Jordan was amazing during those 6 title years. To be fair, when jordan first retired, the Bulls managed to win 55 games without him with Pippen at the forefront... arguably a better supporting cast than LeBron has now. Still... Jordan was incredible at his absolute best and deserving of all the praise he received.