Back in his days, Jerry Stackhouse was compared to Michael Jordan, although they didn’t play in the same position, he actually had some similarities with the Chicago Bulls legend. They even had the chance to play together, but for Stackhouse, that’s an experience he would have preferred not to live.
During a recent interview with ESPN’s “The Woj Pod“, Jerry discussed his time with the Wizards after being traded from the Detroit Pistons, in an exchange that sent Richard Hamilton to Motor City. He recalled how playing with Jordan was complicated as he was trying to run the team’s offense through him, making some changes that weren’t well-received by Stackhouse.
He even said he wishes he never played with the Wizards in the first place.
“Honestly, I wish I never played in Washington and for a number of reasons,” Stackhouse said. “I felt we were on our way in Detroit before I got traded there. It was really challenging to be able to be in a situation with an idol who at this particular point, I felt like I was a better player.
“Things were still being run through Michael Jordan,” he continued. “[Head coach] Doug Collins, I love Doug, but I think that was an opportunity for him to make up for some ill moments that they may have had back in Chicago. So, pretty much everything that Michael wanted to do [we did]. We got off to a pretty good start and he didn’t like the way the offense was running because it was running a little bit more through me. He wanted to get a little more isolations for him on the post, of course, so we had more isolations for him on the post. And it just kind of spiraled in a way that I didn’t enjoy that season at all. The kind of picture I had in my mind of Michael Jordan and the reverence I had for him, I lost a little bit of it during the course of that year.”
We don’t know how things would have worked for Stackhouse in Detroit, but for Hamilton, he went to win the championship with them two years after that trade, playing a big role in that champion team.
Stackhouse got stuck with Jordan in Washington, recording 37-45 and failed to qualify for the playoffs in MJ’s last season as a pro. There are plenty of stories about Jordan and his greatness, but according to Jerry, this is not one of them.
