Michael Jordan was a man of many talents during his playing days and being competitive was one of them for the Chicago Bulls legend. As a result, fans were used to seeing MJ issuing a lot of challenges for his fellow teammates and opponents alike.
But thanks to the immense basketball talent that Mike possessed, more often than not, he backed up those claims. So despite facing a lot of great NBA players during his time, he mostly had an upper hand in those fierce battles.
Jordan’s impact on the game of basketball was so huge that even after being retired from the league for almost two decades, fans tend to compare a lot of current superstars with Mike.
But have you ever wondered, which of the amazing players does Jordan want to go head to head with, of course, in their and his prime? Well, ‘His Airness’ answered that question in an interview when he was promoting the NBA 2K14 video game.
(starts at 3:29)
“If I was in my prime, who would I want to play one-on-one? That list is very long. I’d start off with Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant in his prime, LeBron in his prime, D Wade in his prime, Melo, that’s a good start. I don’t think I‘d lose, other than to Kobe Bryant because he steals all of my moves.”
Playing against the GOAT is an honor that almost every player in the NBA would love for him. But what is an even bigger honor? The GOAT wants to compete against you and that too in your respective prime.
The players that MJ mentioned in the video are all amazing in their own way and have dominated the league at one point or another. Even among them, the only player that Jordan believes could have defeated him was none other than Kobe Bryant.
He joked about Kobe stealing all his moves and that would have been the reason behind losing in this hypothetical battle. Apart from him, MJ believes he can defeat each player that he mentioned he would have loved to play in his prime.
We are sure most fans would have loved to see the matchup between Michael and LeBron James. After all, LeBron is the closest that someone has ever reached to Mike’s crown as the GOAT.
Even though Jordan never really played against LBJ, the Bulls legend has studied the game of the L-Train. Jordan once revealed that he would have forced James to go on the left if the two ever played 1-on-1. Because even MJ agrees that if James goes to the right, even he wouldn’t be able to stop him.
At the end of the day, these are all hypothetical scenarios and unfortunately, there is no way for us to know how Mike would have played against the players that he mentioned. Maybe some fans will make these players face off in NBA 2K and post on YouTube? This will be the closest we can get to know the results of these potential 1-on-1s.
