The New York Knicks in the early 2000s were one of the most fun teams to watch. One of the biggest reasons for the same was their electrifying point guard, Stephon Marbury.
Known for his incredible pace and his ball handling, the 45-year-old was a constant in highlight reels for his incredible plays. Recently, the 2-time All-Star made an appearance on the Ryen Russillo podcast.
There, the former Knicks guard revealed which basketball player he looked up to and was in awe of.
“The person who I look at when I watch basketball is Michael Jordan… I feel like you know Michael Jordan had every move that you could think of as a basketball player.”
Marbury explained why he thought Jordan was one of a kind when it came to dribbling the basketball.
“Jordan has so much flash in his handle that people don’t even realize because he wasn’t dribbling the basketball… He literally was like palming the basketball as he was dribbling the basketball. So, you can make the basketball go wherever you wanted to go.”
While MJ is rightly known as one of the best players ever to play the game, the key aspects of his game that everyone focuses on are his scoring and incredible defense. Somehow, though. Jordan’s ball-handling skills are overlooked.
Although ‘His Airness’ wasn’t as flashy as guards like Kyrie Irving, his style of dribbling was perhaps one of the most effective ways to keep control of the basketball. With his massive palms, Jordan had an amazing grip on the ball and when dribbling, was in cruise control.
This led to easy buckets and fewer turnovers, which ultimately led to easy wins for Jordan and Co. A compliment from a crafty guard like Marbury certainly speaks volumes and shows how much skill Jordan had in his game.
