Isaac
Years ago

What It Was Like To Guard Michael Jordan

Craig Ehlo talks about guarding Jordan and it's a really natural, genuine and likeable story. Well worth reading, even if you have MJ fatigue (impossible!). He, of course, talks about The Shot, college kids re-enacting it to annoy him, a handful of times he managed to stop Jordan, etc.

He was never a bad talker or too arrogant, but it was just like what Jason [Williams] said: He'd tell you. He only did that to me one time, from what I remember. It was his 69-point game, and things were going so well for him that I guess he just went for it. We were running up the court side-by-side and he told me: "Listen man, I'm hitting everything, so I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do this time and see if you can stop it. You know you can't stop it. You know you can't stop this. You can't guard me.

"I'm gonna catch it on the left elbow, and then I'm gonna drive to the left to the baseline, and then I'm gonna pull up and shoot my fadeaway."

And sure enough ...
Full story at Deadspin

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Curtley  
Years ago

Jordan once said the guy he most would've liked to have played against was Jerry West and that they'd have come out fairly equal, I reckon Jordan would've smashed him. Also funnily enough the hardest guy Jordan says he guarded (as a defender) was Jeff Malone due to his fall away jumper.

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Isaac  
Years ago

Probably just being polite. I think he would've had him easily.

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Pure Silk  
Years ago

Craig Ehlo = Class Act. After all the beating by the G.O.A.T to come out and say that is awesome. No bitterness just respect and gratitude.

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SMA  
Years ago

I think 69 points did enough talking on their own!

A solid player on some Cleveland sides that always seemed on the verge of something....

'The Shot' is memorable for MJ. But it denied Ehlo his own game winner, and a chance to delay MJ's rise for a year.

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LC  
Years ago

Nice article. As Pure Silk put it - an all class response.

Jordan's Bulls just had it all over an extremely good Cav's side at the time. Getting over the Pistons had them primed to excel.

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celtic green  
Years ago

It would have been nice to see the Cav's if they could have kept going. The injuries to Daugherty, Price and Ron Harper really derailed what could have been a great rivalry with the Bulls. They where still finding their feet and their place in the league when all the injuries happened. Too bad. Great to see such a classy perspective on the game though

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Gordon Liddy  
Years ago

How many times did you jokers see Jerry West play? Im betting zero.

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