Increased the popularity of the game
Michael Jordan brought fans to the game. He made people love basketball. People from all over the world wanted to see him play the game.
Just look at the Nielsen rankings for the NBA Finals for when the Bulls were in and compare them to any other team that was in the Finals. The Bulls-Jazz series held the highest rating ever in 1998 of all NBA Finals at an 18.7 rating.
The lowest Michael Jordan series rating is at 14.2 against the Blazers. The highest rating for Kobe Bryant and his Lakers was at 12.1 when they faced off against the Los Angeles Lakers. The lowest Kobe rating in the finals was at 8.4 when the Lakers won against the Magic.
Michael was just more popular.
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