In the eyes of the public and many players, Michael Jordan is easily among the best defenders in history.
NBA champion in 2004 with the Detroit fortress, the sulphurous Rasheed Wallace, however, has a very different opinion on the subject…
The Bulls guard obviously shone in attack with more than 30,000 career points as well as ten NBA scoring titles, but he was just as fierce in defense. His record is there to prove it.
Nine All-Defensive Team selections, three best interceptor titles in one season as well as a Defender of the Year trophy in 1988: in accounting terms, His Airness was clearly one of the best guard dogs in history.
Except that not all players necessarily have the same opinion, starting with Rasheed Wallace.
The former center didn’t mince his words on his podcast recently:
Rasheed Wallace unfiltered on Michael Jordan
Mike wasn’t that good of a defender. All that NBA crap, like “We love Mike, we’re gonna put him at the top of the rankings”… I’m talking about being on the court.
I saw that motherfucker get his ass kicked, he couldn’t stop guys like JR Rider, probably against Clyde Drexler too, don’t forget young Joe Dumars too…
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I’m not saying he didn’t defend. I’m just saying his defense wasn’t as good as most other players at that time.
I couldn’t put him on 10 or 11 consecutive All-Defensive Teams.
This is a subject that speaks to the Sheed, he who was part of one of the best defensive squads of all time at the Pistons in 2004.
Champion that year against the Lakers of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, the ex-big man is therefore quite well placed to talk about this kind of thing.
However, and if it has obviously happened to MJ to be manhandled in defense (we think of the legendary crossover signed Allen Iverson), we still have a hard time totally agreeing with this flashy statement… The fans of the n°23 also screamed with rage.
