Michael Jordan was the GOAT for a reason, there weren’t many that could stop MJ when he had it going. His ability to destroy his opponents mentally was a large factor in how he was able to win so consistently. Many have spoken about his killer instinct in the past, especially a lot of the players that were his rivals during the 90s.
Jordan won 6 championships in 8 seasons with the Bulls in the 90s, and his year and a half off between the two three-peats saw the Houston Rockets win two of their own. They were led by Hakeem Olajuwon, but they had some excellent players in support, Clyde Drexler, Vernon Maxwell, and Kenny Smith, to name a few.
Maxwell recently spoke about what it was like to face off against MJ in an appearance on the No Chill With Gilbert Arenas podcast. And while he was a little cocksure about how well the Rockets did against the Bulls, he was quick to give Michael Jordan his respect when asked about guarding the legend.
(starts at 1:23 minutes):
“Man, when you look at that sh*t, when they bring out the schedule in the summertime, when they put them goddamn schedules out, you look and you put that damn mark on Chicago and the night before, you as me, it’s sleepless nights man, that s**t be rough.
“I mean think about the s**t what you got to do tomorrow and you don’t wanna get embarrassed and you know this mother***er don’t know how to stop coming at you, just like you, just keep coming and coming, keep that damn foot on your throat man and he just keep coming man.
“I mean you just have to do try and do some s*t to him that nobody else ever did to try to get him off his square, but you know, you can’t touch him, man so I just tried to do s**t that nobody else would do to him, but Mike is Mike man, the best player ever man I ever played because I never thought I’d see nothing like that man.”
It’s crazy to think about the fear MJ put in the hearts of his opponents, however good they might have been themselves. His intensity was second to none; Jordan wanted to win every second and every minute on and off the court. This take from Maxwell is just another reminder of the deep impact MJ’s game left on those that played against him.
