Everyone that followed the NBA in the 1980s knows how many elite offensive stars played in that era. The defense was also exceptional, and one of the premier defenders of that era was former Los Angeles Laker Michael Cooper.
Michael Cooper won Defensive Player Of The Year in 1987. He knows what he’s talking about when it comes to guarding stars, and he recently named the 5 toughest players he had to guard. The list had some surprising omissions.
Michael Cooper’s list of 5 toughest players to guard:
1. Andrew Toney
2. George Gervin
3. Julius Erving
4. Vinnie Johnson
5. Alex English
The list omits some big names from the 1980s, Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas didn’t get a mention. Magic Johnson was Cooper’s teammate, so he wasn’t mentioned either. But his reason for not mentioning Larry Bird was interesting.
“My top five defensive assignments,” Cooper said. “In thinking about this, I took out Larry Bird because everybody knows Larry, that’s the number one, hands down.”
Larry Bird was in a class of his own as a scorer during the 1980s, so it’s no surprise to see him be mentioned as too good for the list. Michael Cooper has already dismissed modern players like Luka Doncic being compared to Bird, so it’s clear that he respects the Celtics legend a lot. After that, Cooper went on to list his reasons for picking the 5 players that he did.
Michael Cooper Elaborated On His Choices For The 5 Toughest Players To Guard
Michael Cooper had solid reasons for picking the five that he did, explaining in detail what made each of them so tough to match up with.
“Andrew Toney,” Cooper said. “People forget about this man. He came in in 1983 and helped the Philadelphia 76ers. Andrew Toney could take you from about 18 to 20 (feet). He was one of those players who was able to get to his spot. He could do it with physicality, and he could throw in some smarts. Very athletic young man. Strong, strong.
“My second person, who I love to this day, is George “Ice Man” Gervin. He was built identically to me. That’s what made him hard to guard because when I was able to slither around people setting picks, he was able to get between both of us. I’ve never seen anyone who could shoot the ball off the backboard at different angles. He was the best at that.
“The next one is Julius Erving. I don’t pick Doctor J because he dunked on me. He was a great player. As he lost a little bit of his athleticism, as he got older as a player, Doc started moving in, and started posting up a little more. He became a master of that 12-, 13-foot bank shot off the left side.
“A player that was very, very hard for me to stop was Vinnie Johnson,” he said. “You thought I was going to say Isiah (Thomas) or (Joe) Dumars. Vinnie Johnson the ‘Microwave.’ A little stocky guard, about 6-3, he was strong as s***. We used to call him a little fire hydrant. He was hard to move. He had a weird shot but could get it off against anybody.
“Alex English played in Denver, and that was an ideal place for him because the guy never got tired. Alex had that weird, high, high shot that went way over his head. He wasn’t very physical but could score at any angle on the court. He reminds me a little bit of George Gervin. Just made the game look easy.”
There are a lot of players who don’t get enough shine from modern fans, and it’s great to see Cooper name some of these legends. It’s odd to see that he didn’t mention the usual suspects like Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas, and Dominique Wilkins, but this list will make sense to any NBA fan who knows the league’s history.
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