let me bring some levity to your convenient facts
jordan played without pippen for his first 3 seasons as pippen was not drafted until '87, kobe got to play with shaq from the GET-GO in the fall of '96, Shaq had already made the finals and was quickly becoming the dominant big man in the league because hakeem, patrick ewing, and david robinson were aging veterans, and still it was not until their 4th season together that they won a championship, MJ and pippen won in the 90-91 season which was also their 4th season together..............ask any NBA scout, GM, coach or former player, a guard would rather play with a dominant big-man than a great swingman, in other words, they would all pick the chance to play with shaq in his prime over pippen in his prime,
the facts:
smart, knowledgeable, people were not ready to anoint MJ the greatest until he had more rings than magic, kareem, bird, etc
guess what, HE HAS 6 RINGS WHICH IS MORE THAN THOSE GUYS
same thing now, smart, knowledgeable, people are NOT ready to anoint kobe better than MJ, let alone as good as MJ right now because
MJ = 6 rings
Kobe = 4 rings after this series
MJ did it with no dominant big man, w/a dominant big man like kobe had, MJ would have won 9 rings easily
the truth hurts when laker/kobe fans have to face it dead on