Michael Jordan was the most dominant and popular NBA player of the 1990s. He won six NBA titles in six trips to the NBA Finals.
- Who Is Sheryl Swoopes?
- Jordan vs. Swoopes
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While Jordan was dominating the male side of basketball, there was a “female Jordan” who was dominating the female side of basketball. The female baller I’m referring to is Sheryl Swoopes.
Who Is Sheryl Swoopes?
Sheryl Swoopes was a college basketball star, winning the NCAA women’s basketball championship with the University of Texas as a senior in 1993. Swoopes went on to have a successful Olympic basketball career, winning three gold medals. She also won two golds and two bronze medals in the World Cup.
The Women’s National Basketball Association, or WNBA, was founded in 1996, and the league saw its first game in 1997. Swoops was selected by the Houston Comets in the 1997 Allocation Draft, where she’d play in only nine games due to giving birth to her son.
The Houston Comets had a powerhouse of a team. Along with Swoopes, they had stars Cynthia Cooper and Tina Thompson. Houston won the first four championships of the WNBA.
Swoopes would play 12 seasons, winning 3 MVP awards and 3 Defensive Player of the Year Awards. She was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
As you may tell, Swoopes was one heck of a basketball player. It didn’t matter that she was a woman; she could wipe the floor with most men on the hardwood. But could she defeat the mighty Michael Jordan?
Jordan vs. Swoopes
The year was 1993, and the Chicago Bulls had just won three straight championships. Before Michael Jordan shocked the world with his first retirement, he held a basketball camp, and one of the people invited to the camp was Sheryl Swoopes.
Jordan wanted Swoopes at his camp because he heard that she was being called the “female Michael Jordan.” So, naturally, the ultra-competitive Jordan would want to see how good Swoopes’ game was.
Jordan would get what he wanted when he called Swoopes to join in on the court in front of all the other campers. This is something Swoopes once recounted in an article.
Via Players’ Tribune:
“I used to say to my cousins and my friends, ‘Someday I’m going to meet Michael Jordan.’ They were like, ‘Yeah, O.K.’ Like, ‘So am I.’ No, it’s going to happen. I’m telling you guys it’s going to happen.
“I remember the first time I got an opportunity to meet him, it was right after the ’93 championship, and he had invited me to come work his basketball camp in Chicago. I’m standing in the back of the room….
“He walks in, and he stands in the middle of the court, ‘Where is Sheryl Swoopes?’ My initial thought was, why? Why is he asking about me? And then my second thought was, but he knows my name. ‘Right here.’ He calls me out on the court.
“And now I am suddenly standing right next to my idol — because he was, and he still is, my idol. I’m just standing there like, what do I say? What do I do? ‘Watched you play in the final four.’ And I was like, ‘Thank you.’
“Like one answer, right, thank you. He said, ‘You’re pretty good.’ I was like, ‘Thank you.’ And then he said, ‘So people are saying you’re the female Michael Jordan.’
And the kids were like, ‘Oh, ooh.’ And I said to him, ‘I never said that. That didn’t come from me.’ He said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘I watched you play.’ He said, ‘You’re pretty good.’ He said, ‘How about a game of one-on-one?’
“And I said, ‘Me and you?’ He was like, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Right now?’ He was like, ‘Yeah.’ And the campers are like, ‘Yeah. Go play, go play.’ I can’t say no. First of all, it’s Michael Jordan, and second of all, it’s his camp.”
Swoopes started the game hot against Jordan, taking a 4-3 lead. Jordan would take over the game and look to finish Swoopes off with his patent slam dunk.
As Jordan was about to slam one home to end the game, Swoopes did the unthinkable to Air Jordan…
“I don’t know what came across me. I grabbed him from behind, and I just pulled him out of the air. I still have some pride, right?” Swoopes said. “I’m like, ‘I can’t let you dunk in front of me.’ Long story short, pulled him out the air, so he missed the dunk. He won the game.”
Swoopes made Jordan miss his dunk attempt, but it wouldn’t stop the G.O.A.T., as Jordan would still win the game. What makes this story even more interesting is during the game, Swoopes’ makeup rubbed off on Jordan’s white North Carolina T-shirt.
“I got makeup, lipstick, everything on this North Carolina T-shirt of his,” Swoopes recalled. “He ended up having to give me the shirt because he couldn’t take the shirt with him with all the makeup on it. To this day, that’s one of my favorite T-shirts that I have. That’s my Michael Jordan story that I will remember forever.”
This was a great story that Sheryl Swoopes told about Michael Jordan. It seems like everyone wants to hear a nice tale involving MJ, and one that ends with his shirt being smeared in makeup after a basketball game is a good one.
The two became good friends, and Swoopes even named her son Jordan after the G.O.A.T. Swoopes certainly lived up to the nickname of being the “female Michael Jordan.”
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