Chicago Bulls icon Michael Jordan has gone down as arguably the greatest scorer in NBA history. Jordan was especially deadly as an isolation scorer, but former NBA player Tim Hardaway Sr. doesn’t think he’d fare well in a 1-on-1 tournament. When discussing the tournament potentially being added to All-Star weekend in the future on the Crossover Podcast, Hardaway dismissed Jordan’s chances of winning one.
“How did Michael Jordan win MVP?” Hardaway asked. “Was it alone or was it with a team?”
The response was that Jordan won as a team, but the point was also raised that those Bulls teams wouldn’t have won championships without him. Hardaway, though, made it clear he was speaking in a 1-on-1 context.
“I’m talking about 1-on-1,” Hardaway stated. “If it was one-on-one, he would get cooked, ’cause ain’t nobody there… Scottie Pippen ain’t coming there to block your shot…. [Luc Longley] not coming over there and put his big body on you… He’ll put his big body on you, too. Luc Longley, he’ll hurt you too. He be like, ‘Oh Lord, brick wall.’ But anyway, Dennis Rodman, he not coming over there taking a charge.”
This was quite the odd argument to make. Did Jordan benefit from playing alongside incredible defensive players like Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman? Sure, he did, but the fact is, he was no slouch on that end either.
Jordan won Defensive Player of the Year in 1988 and made the All-Defensive First Team nine times. He also won DPOY while averaging 35.0 points per game in that 1987-88 campaign. Pippen was just a rookie back then, while Rodman wasn’t even on the team.
Jordan, who won a record 10 scoring titles, was fully capable of dominating on both ends of the court. If he were ever in a proper 1-on-1 tournament, there might only be a few players you’d give a chance of taking him down. He was giving active NBA players all sorts of problems on the court after he retired, too.
Former Charlotte Bobcats guard Raymond Felton once revealed Jordan dominated 1-on-1 games against them.
“MJ as an owner is just how he is as a player,” Felton said. “He was super competitive, he hated to lose, and he came to the locker room many times and told us how he felt about how we was playing. The one moment I’mma take from that was it was me, him, Jeff McInnis, Gerald Wallace, and I want to say [Jason Richardson].
“J-Rich might not have been there, but I know it was me, Gerald, and Jeff Mcinnis,” Felton continued. “We played 1-on-1 against MJ. When I tell you he was frying us… Man, he was frying us, bro, and was talking crazy to us too.”
Felton added that they did manage to score on Jordan, but he won every time. He was just that good.
You can maybe still make an argument for why Jordan wouldn’t win a 1-on-1 tournament, but for Hardaway, who played in the NBA from 1989 to 2003, to suggest he’d get crushed is absolutely absurd.
