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Pippen or MJ ? Who was the better defender in their primes?

Jordan won defensive player of the year, Pippen didn't ... so I guess that's my answer ... but, not taking anything away from Pippen, there's a reason why he usually got the toughest defensive matchup of the night, he could guard anyone from the 1 position to the 4 ...

Until 1993 it was MJ, after that it was Pippen.

MJ was also voted first in 1993 by the coaches but 2nd by the press thus Hakeem won DPOY that year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16D4DCdu ... ed&search=

between the 1:22 - 1:32 mark you hear it.


Here is MJ's defense
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4gigN2zMU4

I agree with JordansBulls.

Pippen

Jordan. He was DPOY and was the only guard at that time to record 200 steals and 100 blocks and in back to back year. He generally guards the best pg or sg of the opposing team.

^I agree, i take jordan

Pippen was the better defender, it's not really close imo even though Jordan was a great defender.

Jordan is amazing..honestly, he isn't human..

a guy that played with great efficiency and scored a lot of points on good and great teams as a #1 option, can still give that much energy on the defensive side and look good enough to win the DPOY..

Pippen man-to-man, Jordan team defense.

Jordan was absolutely amazing at anticipating where the ball is going both regarding passes and shots.

Pippen. Hes the one who had to D up on the best player night in and night out. Go look at those highlights that JordansBulls posted.That 9 minute clip of Jordan playing defense sums everything up very well. Hes an excellent defender, and even moreso on just help defense. He got into the passing lanes so well and had great anticipation. But in that video, how many times was he defending that teams best player? Hardly ever.. Pippen always had the toughest assignment, and when it came to straight up, man to man, lock down defense, Pippen takes it IMO

Fitz303 wrote:Pippen. Hes the one who had to D up on the best player night in and night out. Go look at those highlights that JordansBulls posted.That 9 minute clip of Jordan playing defense sums everything up very well. Hes an excellent defender, and even moreso on just help defense. He got into the passing lanes so well and had great anticipation. But in that video, how many times was he defending that teams best player? Hardly ever.. Pippen always had the toughest assignment, and when it came to straight up, man to man, lock down defense, Pippen takes it IMO

You're actually completely wrong, but don't let the truth get in the way of your bias. I'll respond more fully later.

Fitz303 wrote:Pippen. Hes the one who had to D up on the best player night in and night out. Go look at those highlights that JordansBulls posted.That 9 minute clip of Jordan playing defense sums everything up very well. Hes an excellent defender, and even moreso on just help defense. He got into the passing lanes so well and had great anticipation. But in that video, how many times was he defending that teams best player? Hardly ever.. Pippen always had the toughest assignment, and when it came to straight up, man to man, lock down defense, Pippen takes it IMO

Pippen guarded the big swingmen and Jordan the 'smaller' ones. Usually, that turned into Jordan on the SGs (cause he was an SG) and Pippen on the SFs (cause he was an SF). Things like Magic Johnson or Jalen Rose muddled things because they were PGs bigger than most SGs (or some SFs), so Pippen guarded them.

But no, neither Jordan nor Pippen ever specifically guarded the best perimeter player, they usually just guarded by position because they were both so amazing on defense. If the SG happened to be better then hey! Jordan is guarding the best perimeter player. If the SF was better then hey! Pippen is guarding the best perimeter player. It's not like they planned it though "Hey we're playing the Hornets and Glen Rice is their best player, so Pip you stick him". Didn't work like that.

I just watched in youtube the complete 1992 USA Dream Team vs Croatia in the finals, wherein Petrovic was abusing anyone who guarded him during that game. Then MJ switched on him and shut him down, until the Dream Team was up by 30points++ and the game was pretty much over.

Jordan was the first option and still was on par with Pippen on defense. If it was just defending a guy, no heavy scoring responsibilities, I'll take Jordan.

In the words of Jerry Sloan:

"Michael Jordan is the best defender the NBA has ever seen."

Coming from a guy who was once considered the NBA's best defender, and who saw Jordan through out his entire career, that's saying something.

Batronuj wrote:In the words of Jerry Sloan:

"Michael Jordan is the best defender the NBA has ever seen."

Coming from a guy who was once considered the NBA's best defender, and who saw Jordan through out his entire career, that's saying something.

Link or source for that quote? I know Sloan thought very highly of Jordan, but I've never heard him say that. Interesting if true (though I disagree; Jordan is a top 5-10 all-time defender, though; it's mostly bigs up front).

I think you can make a fine case for Pip for team defense, or just to create general havoc. But to lock one guy down, a big time scorer, I'm taking M.J.

Jordan23Forever wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Link or source for that quote? I know Sloan thought very highly of Jordan, but I've never heard him say that. Interesting if true (though I disagree; Jordan is a top 7-10 all-time defender, though).

My favorite sloan quote was something like "I could've guarded MJ in my prime..... of course he was about 10 years old at the time."

ice9 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



My favorite sloan quote was something like "I could've guarded MJ in my prime..... of course he was about 10 years old at the time."

Sloan is great lol.

I just checked that video, I saw a lot of MJ games but it was nice
to see it again, just a clip of his D.Dude is s!ck, with all do respect to Pippen who IMO is one heck of a defender, MJ was just SICK. If I'm not mistaken he's the only player to win DPOY + Scoring title the same year, that sums up what MJ is about IMO. He was the primary scorer, he had to lead them on O, scoring 35+ points on 8 rebounds 8 assists as if that's not enough and all of that energy, still to come up huge defensively, I don't know but that's unheard of, just SICK. Watching him play...goddamn he's so sexy, I mean his swagga. The way he moves, shoots, passes, intercepts passes, how he looks at his opponent, how he dunks, how he flies, how he abuses, how he dribbles....the MOFO got badass style.