Over his 17-year career, Metta Sandiford-Artest (formerly known as Metta World Peace), made a name for himself as an elite defender.
From Kobe Bryant to LeBron James, he has been asked to guard some extremely tough opponents.
According to him, the toughest of them all was, believe it or not, was 38-year-old Michael Jordan, who was on his last leg in D.C.
On the “Bootleg Kev” podcast, he explained why:
“I think Jordan was the toughest, man,” Metta said. “The first year (with Washington Wizards) was his Jordan, not his last year. The first two and a half seasons with the Wizards. So the first year was miss season. After the next year was the full season and then that last year was one thing he’s average like he was not joining. But that first year came back, he averaging 25.”
Wizards Jordan was obviously not the same guy that dominated the league in Chicago. Still, he was an absolute monster who averaged 21.2 points over 142 games with the franchise.
Artest faced off against this version of MJ, which contrasted greatly to LeBron James in his younger days.
“The thing about Jordan was, you knew what he was gonna do. He’s gone get you and he’s gonna pull up. Go left, pull up. He’s gonna fade right. You knew it was coming. When I first started guarding LeBron, you didn’t know what he was gonna do. He was quite successful but it was still like, it wasn’t as predictable. Which made it a little harder. But Jordan, I knew exactly what he was gonna do.”
If Michael was so hard to guard in his late 30s, imagine how frustrating it must have been for defenders during his prime.
The Bulls legend owned an entire decade of basketball, leading his Bulls to six titles over 8 years while putting on a performance nobody had ever seen before.
Today, he is widely regarded as the best basketball player ever. It’s no wonder why Artest had such a tough time trying to slow him down.
