To honor OP's scenario for a moment, I'm just imagining how wild it would be if the parallel universes could see each other.
Imagine that MJ goes to the Cavs, really is "loyal" and never leaves. They're just as bad at building around him, but late in his career they manage to form a semblance of a championship roster by sheer luck, and he wins 1-2 titles. He ends up getting regarded like Hakeem, as an incredible talent and legendary two-way player who is talked about in revered tones, but ranked outside the top-5 by most and outside the top-10 by some.
Those people then get to see our universe and see that MJ is treated like an unassailable basketball god....cause he was on better teams. They might even think, "Man, that 2015 title we saw him win against those young Warriors with a raw Jimmy Butler as his #2 option was way more impressive than those Chicago rings!"
Meanwhile, Chicago Bron wins 6-8 titles (not from being better than MJ, just from not retiring either time and having somewhat more longevity). Is generally a non-controversial player who most people regard as the GOAT. Then the alternative universe sees the Cleveland Bron and thinks, "Um, some of those titles this version of Bron won were actually harder than any of the ones our version won. Y'all are weird to be hating like this."
I'm saying this assuming that Bron and Jordan are roughly equal players in reality. But just changing the circumstances would wildly impact how they were ranked in history. It's how the human mind works.
