Lou Holtz was the master of publicly stating how scared he was of every single upcoming opponent he faced. He didn't just say he thought the next opponent looked tough, he would imply the next opponent was about to cut a swath across America as if it were one of the Four Horsemen. He was as likely to say this about Penn State as he was to say it about Navy.
Faced with an in-state rival the likes of which the NBA has never seen, Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy has a few different options. He could try ignoring the Heat and pretending his Magic are just as talented as LeBron's boys. Or he could put on a spectacle that would make Lou Holtz blush.
Van Gundy's already said the Heat can break the Bulls' 72-win mark. Now he tells a radio station that the Heat line-up is pound-for-pound better than anything Michael Jordan's Bulls ever put on the floor.
"If I look at what the Bulls did winning 72 games and I look at the Heat roster, I am going to tell you that the Heat roster is better than any roster that Michael Jordan played with the Bulls. I don't think that people predicting them breaking the win total and being in the 70s and the whole thing, I don't think those are expectations that are out of line based on their roster... Dwyane Wade is certainly, in my opinion anyway, as good as he was, is better than Scottie Pippen. Chris Bosh is better than Toni Kukoc. Mike Miller is every bit as good a shooter as (John) Paxson or (Steve) Kerr or anybody they put there. Plus, he's 6′8″. If you start going down the list, I don't think there is any question that the roster the Heat have is as talented a roster if not more so as any roster there has ever been in the NBA."
It's not that Van Gundy is wrong. In fact, he might actually be correct. It's just that...geez Stan...if you keep this up you're gonna give LeBron a big head.