WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes was one of the best at what she did, but even she couldn’t go toe-to-toe against Michael Jordan in his prime.
Years ago, in a packed gym one random afternoon, ESPN film crews captured Swoopes playing a friendly game of 1-on-1 with MJ himself. And while she couldn’t grab a win on the court, she did beam with excitement as she trash-talked Jordan after the match. Here;s the footage below, which has gone viral online:
Of course, MJ is the greatest basketball player ever. He’s a 14x All-Star, 10x scoring leader, and 6x champion. He’s hard enough to beat when you’ve got a full team behind your back, but nearly impossible to defeat alone. He has almost no weaknesses on the court.
In fact, the great Kobe Bryant once shared a legendary story of the time he and Michael Jordan discussed who would win 1-on-1 at dinner. The details aren’t very shocking at all:
“(The) last time we had dinner he was talking about ‘My year in 1991 versus your peak year, I would’ve kicked your a**’. I said ‘Mike, come on now, enjoy the salad. We both know that’s not gonna happen’.”
That would be the greatest matchup ever, and those two are probably the best 1-on-1 players in NBA history. Unfortunately, we’ll never get to see it happen as MJ retired decades ago while Kobe passed away back in 2020.
So, credit to Swoopes for hanging in there with Jordan and even giving him some lip after it was all said and done. It takes some guts to stand up to Michael Jordan, and she held her own out there. It really explains why she has had so much success over her amazing and accomplished WNBA career.
