Who are the good 1 on 1 Defenders MJ faced?

[HurdyGurdyMan]

why people act like Starks was some scrub? dude was widely inconsistent on offense (not the point here) but on the defensive side he was tough as nails.

[CodeBreaker]

Majerle was not a good defender. His lack of athleticism was exposed when he faced off vs MJ.

MJ was much quicker than anyone else his size.

There were plenty of good defensive players who had trouble with/were bad at defending MJ.

I mean, would you say someone is a bad defender because they have trouble guarding LeBron?

That seems really dumb

To that end..

Watch on YouTube

Does that mean Kahwi has a lack of athleticism?

In the end, a great offensive player is going to get theirs regardless against anyone 1 on 1. To me the team defense and strategy is more important. Back then you get past a Dumars or Starks, and you had Oakleys, Laimbeers, Malones, etc to pound you. Those type of physical interior defenders are a lot rarer today.

2016 Curry my gawd! Watched this game live, and saw that happened... I forgot I was a LeBron fan than a Curry fan lmao

[Pennebaker]

Craig Ehlo
Kevin Johnson
Danny Ainge
Hersey Hawkins
Byron Russell
Jeff Hornacek


Seriously though:

Little Joe Dumars
Skinny Michael Cooper
Little Gary Payton

MJ has never faced the kind of defenders that exist today, who are as athletic as him, but bigger and stronger.

[carrrnuttt]

How the **** are all these BronStans so insecure?

If your dude was *that* **** great, you wouldn't need threads like these.

All these do is affirm what everyone knows and the BronStans now know but will rather die than admit: MJ is the GOAT.

[LKN]

How the **** are all these BronStans so insecure?

If you're dude was *that* **** great, you wouldn't need threads like these.

All these do is affirm what everyone knows and the BronStans now know but will rather die than admit: MJ is the GOAT.

The thing is LeBron is a fantastic all-time great player. He deserves much better fans.

[carrrnuttt]

How the **** are all these BronStans so insecure?

If you're dude was *that* **** great, you wouldn't need threads like these.

All these do is affirm what everyone knows and the BronStans now know but will rather die than admit: MJ is the GOAT.

The thing is LeBron is a fantastic all-time great player. He deserves much better fans.

He really, REALLY does.

Then again, calling himself the GOAT and personally controlling the narratives with his "insider" journalists around everything he does is not a good look for him.

That's not even counting his FO/tampering shenanigans.

Maybe they DO deserve each other.

[alebaba]

You can't guard a prime Mj with big guards, he'll just blow pass them every time.

[alebaba]

You can't guard a prime Mj with big guards, he'll just blow pass them every time.

Craig Ehlo
Kevin Johnson
Danny Ainge
Hersey Hawkins
Byron Russell
Jeff Hornacek


Seriously though:

Little Joe Dumars
Skinny Michael Cooper
Little Gary Payton

MJ has never faced the kind of defenders that exist today, who are as athletic as him, but bigger and stronger.

There ain't nobody in todays league as athletic as a prime Mj. Jason Terry was able to shut Lebron down in the finals? How much did he average for the finals?

[Jordan Stopper]

His finals defenders were absolute mismatches.

Averaging 40 a game in the 93 finals almost seems underwhelming when you consider he was guarded by a 6 foot KJ most of the series and was jacking up close to 30 shots a game

[BloodNinja]

MJ has never faced the kind of defenders that exist today, who are as athletic as him, but bigger and stronger.

How many guys in the league even fit that description? 0

Doesn't matter anyway because MJ wasn't getting shook by the likes of Jason Terry or JJ Barea.

[Side beard]

Majerle was not a good defender. His lack of athleticism was exposed when he faced off vs MJ.

MJ was much quicker than anyone else his size.

There were plenty of good defensive players who had trouble with/were bad at defending MJ.

I mean, would you say someone is a bad defender because they have trouble guarding LeBron?

That seems really dumb

To that end..

Watch on YouTube

Does that mean Kahwi has a lack of athleticism?

In the end, a great offensive player is going to get theirs regardless against anyone 1 on 1. To me the team defense and strategy is more important. Back then you get past a Dumars or Starks, and you had Oakleys, Laimbeers, Malones, etc to pound you. Those type of physical interior defenders are a lot rarer today.

Come on, that is Curry Kawhi had to guard. You stop to think for a 0.00001 second and thats a 3 from Steph. Jordan would be a lot easier to guard than Curry for Kawhi.

[lazybatman]

Who said Jason Terry and JJ Barea shut down Lebron? Just... slap yourself. You deserve it.. smh

[Gooner]

Missing Byron Russell, 6'7, 220 from your list. He was a pretty good defender.

Derrick McKey was 6'10'' defensive specialist who guarded Jordan. Drexler defended him as a 6'7'' guy, Calbert Cheaney aswell, even Craig Ehlo was a great defender.

[Gooner]

How the **** are all these BronStans so insecure?

If you're dude was *that* **** great, you wouldn't need threads like these.

All these do is affirm what everyone knows and the BronStans now know but will rather die than admit: MJ is the GOAT.

The thing is LeBron is a fantastic all-time great player. He deserves much better fans.

He doesn't, he feeds off of their energy.

[Jordan Stopper]

Missing Byron Russell, 6'7, 220 from your list. He was a pretty good defender.

Derrick McKey was 6'10'' defensive specialist who guarded Jordan. Drexler defended him as a 6'7'' guy, Calbert Cheaney aswell, even Craig Ehlo was a great defender.

Kobe fans were using the exact same arguments in this thread against MJ 10 years a go.

Both Lebron and Kobe faced better defenders, there's nothing wrong in acknowledging that and of the three, I'm on the MJ bandwagon.

[twyzted]

Craig Ehlo
Kevin Johnson
Danny Ainge
Hersey Hawkins
Byron Russell
Jeff Hornacek


Seriously though:

Little Joe Dumars
Skinny Michael Cooper
Little Gary Payton

MJ has never faced the kind of defenders that exist today, who are as athletic as him, but bigger and stronger.

who would have thought that in the space of 24 hours in the same thread i would see 2 of the most stupid things i have seen on the internet.
I think i will buy a lotto ticket
No defender stopped Jordan but we have 4 players who stopped lebron.
Iguodala 6"6 215
Leonard 6"7 230
Marion 6"7 220
Bowen 6"7 185
2 won fmvp
1 destroyed him and lebron put up the worst finals performance of any goat candidate.
And no there is not a player in the nba who would stop him or is as good of an athlete as him

[Jordan Stopper]

Jordan faced some great defenders, no doubt,

but he also faced more of this than both LeBron and Kobe ever did...

Watch on YouTube

Steve Kerr's fly kicks whilst guarding Jordan are both funny and pitiful at the same time.

If Jordan were really the competitive maniac he was claimed to be, he should've rather benched himself than facing such a putrid level of competition.

[Pennebaker]

Craig Ehlo
Kevin Johnson
Danny Ainge
Hersey Hawkins
Byron Russell
Jeff Hornacek


Seriously though:

Little Joe Dumars
Skinny Michael Cooper
Little Gary Payton

MJ has never faced the kind of defenders that exist today, who are as athletic as him, but bigger and stronger.

who would have thought that in the space of 24 hours in the same thread i would see 2 of the most stupid things i have seen on the internet.
I think i will buy a lotto ticket
No defender stopped Jordan but we have 4 players who stopped lebron.
Iguodala 6"6 215
Leonard 6"7 230
Marion 6"7 220
Bowen 6"7 185
2 won fmvp
1 destroyed him and lebron put up the worst finals performance of any goat candidate.
And no there is not a player in the nba who would stop him or is as good of an athlete as him

Ha! All of the players you listed are much bigger than Jordan (not to mention really great defenders).

Jordan was only 6-4 3/4. Teams defended him in the clutch of the NBA Finals with guys like 6-0 180 Kevin Johnson.

In the 1996 NBA Finals 6-3 180 Gary Payton held Michael Jordan to 23.7 ppg on 36% shooting.

Kawhi Leonard at a true 6-7 230 is a monster compared to Jordan. LeBron at 6-9 260 is a behemoth compared to Jordan. And both of those guys can keep up with Jordan athletically. Iggy and Matrix could also keep up athletically. MJ has never seen defenders of this size and ability. I know you don't like it, but it's still true.

[trueballer7]

His finals defenders were absolute mismatches.

Averaging 40 a game in the 93 finals almost seems underwhelming when you consider he was guarded by a 6 foot KJ most of the series and was jacking up close to 30 shots a game

And then you watch the actual games and see, free throws excluded, he dropped 93 points on Majerle, 75 on KJ, 17 on Dumas and a good amount of them came vs 2-3-4 opponents on the same play and the underwhelming sort of gives way to overwhelming, especially when you watch KJ getting crossed over out of this universe about 10 times, with the right hand, the left hand and once getting crossed over twice both with the left and the right hand on the same play. Its a good thing they had camera's back then. We can save people from being underwhelmed bying on lies and myths

Watch on YouTube

Imagine being a guy that has about a million plays beating 3 people at once, that could not be stopped from dropping 40 posting up bigger guys, couldnt be followed in the perimeter by the smaller, most explosive guys, was an equally deadly premise off the ball, in iso, posting up, shooting stationary, midrange, longtwos, fastbreak, over the rim, could fadeaway from all angles and all distances, acrobat your way through several people in the air, to a point of consistency where whole teams ganging up on you didnt make a difference, and have guys ask whether you faced any good 1 on 1 defenders, because anything thrown at you was annihilated.

[twyzted]

Craig Ehlo
Kevin Johnson
Danny Ainge
Hersey Hawkins
Byron Russell
Jeff Hornacek


Seriously though:

Little Joe Dumars
Skinny Michael Cooper
Little Gary Payton

MJ has never faced the kind of defenders that exist today, who are as athletic as him, but bigger and stronger.

who would have thought that in the space of 24 hours in the same thread i would see 2 of the most stupid things i have seen on the internet.
I think i will buy a lotto ticket
No defender stopped Jordan but we have 4 players who stopped lebron.
Iguodala 6"6 215
Leonard 6"7 230
Marion 6"7 220
Bowen 6"7 185
2 won fmvp
1 destroyed him and lebron put up the worst finals performance of any goat candidate.
And no there is not a player in the nba who would stop him or is as good of an athlete as him

Ha! All of the players you listed are much bigger than Jordan (not to mention really great defenders).

Jordan was only 6-4 3/4. Teams defended him in the clutch of the NBA Finals with guys like 6-0 180 Kevin Johnson.

In the 1996 NBA Finals 6-3 180 Gary Payton held Michael Jordan to 23.7 ppg on 36% shooting.

Kawhi Leonard at a true 6-7 230 is a monster compared to Jordan. LeBron at 6-9 260 is a behemoth compared to Jordan. And both of those guys can keep up with Jordan athletically. Iggy and Matrix could also keep up athletically. MJ has never seen defenders of this size and ability. I know you don't like it, but it's still true.

Well if jordan is 6"4 why are you then crying about sizes of players jordan faced? You list kevin johnson?
I mean bowen was 6"7 185 and he had little problem with lebron who is what 2" taller 65lbs heavier.

And you fail to see that teams know they wont stop jordan or lebron but their best bet is to guard them with smaller players who can keep up with them and stop them from destroing them by turning the game into a dunk contest/layupline. You will want them to take jump shots but the catch is jordan is much better jump shoter so i did not work against him but it works against lebron.

In the 11 finals 6"7 220lbs marion held lebron to 17.8ppg