I was having a discussion last night with a buddy about the best player to guard Jordan. I could have sworn Jordan claimed at one point that Maxwell was the best to ever guard him. My friend says he was at one of MJ's camps when he was asked the question, and Mike said it was in fact Joe Dumars who best defended him. I can't find that quote for some reason, though. Help me set the record straight. I put money on the line. Plus, this claim is important ammo for all the people who annoyingly claim there's an asterisk next to our rings because Jordan was "out" those two seasons (not technically true, as the 94-95 bulls got beat by a Shaq and Penny led team which we of course swept).
The one who defended MJ the best were Pippen and Rodman in practice. That was part of the reason Bulls were so dominant they had a Royal Flush other only had pairs
Jordan's said several times Dumars was the best defender he faced. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nlGco3CKPRU and
Yeah, they were stacked 1-5. There was a reason Jordan was afraid of the Rockets and it was these guys.
I probably would choose Mad Max or Joe Dumars, maybe Gary Payton for individuals. Artest/World Peace is the one I haven't seen, yet. Though, going back by splits by season, here are some other candidates: 1984/85 -- He was a *f#cking" beast out of the gates, but one team that had the most success against him ... Dallas Mavericks -- Who guarded him ...Derek Harper, Rolando Blackman, Brad Davis, and Aguirre w/ Donaldson and Perkins in the middle. Utah and Philly did fairly ok against him as well. Philly had Iavroni, Cheeks, and Jones. 1985/86 -- Injured. Again Philly might had the best game against him. 1986/87 - No one, but the Mavs once again probably did the best job against him over the season. Also, Washington did pretty well. 1987/88 -- Seattle, and not too far behind, the Mavs. 1988/89 - The Bad Boys, by far. 1989/90 -- The Bad Boys, again. He had some awful games against them. Runner-up: Portland. 1990/91-- NO ONE!!!! 1991/92 -- ....Who do you think? ... the Rockets. With some other familiar faces --- Knicks and Supersonics, but not in the way the Rockets did. Also, the Clippers, but those were throwaway games. 1992/93 -- ...The Knicks, but the Rockets beat them handily in both matchups. Clippers in the background. 1994/95 -- the Return from Retirement, very short sample -- Indiana and Cleveland. But, Cleveland was back-to-back game. He did roughly ok against the Magic, but had some bad games against them. 1995/96 -- Pretty decisive over most teams, I'd almost have give nod to a few teams, here. Orlando, Houston, Indiana, and Sacramento. 1996/96 -- Lakers (they gave it to Chicago that year, it was split, but they had a fairly big lead against them in the first meeting and out right blowed them out in the 2nd). Have to give a nod to Toronto. Honorable mentions -- Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, and Indiana. 1997/98 -- (Pippen was a good portion of the season) Toronto, New Jersey and Philly probably did the best job over the season (maybe he took those teams lightly). Though, Toronto did the best job, perhaps over the course of his career, they were the only team to hold him 20 ppg/40% shooting for 4 or more games. HM: Cleveland, Boston, Detroit, and GSW. He TORCHED the living soul out of the Rockets that year. I can say the same for other so-called rival teams, like the Knicks, Lakers, Jazz, Weird thing about this season, some of the younger teams were having more success (esp. with decent defensive gameplan), defensively against MJ. The Bulls played Toronto, NJ, Philly, Cleveland, Boston, and Detroit. He did play alot of minutes in many of these games as well. In the West, SA and GSW. I went back to watch a few highlights. Over the course of his career, for a few seasons, the Raptors might have done the best job against guarding MJ, though an older MJ. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jordami01/splits/1998 Not counting the two Wizard seasons, because he was pretty past his prime at that point. Because, it's a pretty profound drop-off. I really cannot choose one player, because I feel like it's often defensive schemes in many of these games that might throw a team's or star player's game off. Another overlooked question-- the coaches I feel did the best against MJ ... Larry Brown, Chuck Daily, Pat Riley, and Rudy T. Maybe, a few HMs with Rick Pitino and Mike Fratello. Underrated Jordan defenders -- Doug Christie, Derek Harper, Michael Cooper, Ron Mercer, and ... Bobby Sura/Cedric Henderson/Brevin Knight.
