In NBA history, probably one of the most innacurate criticism that exist is anybody who doesn’t think Michael Jordan was a great defender. Starting with the argument that Jordan won one defensive player of the year award in 1989. But more importantly, he was the NBA steals leader three separate years and made the NBA All-Defensive Team a total of 9 times. For that alone, nobody can claim Michael Jordan was not a great defensive player. But despite the evidence, Jordan is still criticized even by some of his peers. Enter Rasheed Wallace, the New York Knicks legend who was a Michael Jordan contemporary and played against him multiple times.
On his podcast ‘Sheed & Tyler’, Wallace said: “He was a phenomenal player then but I think he was a little more dangerous when he was with the Wizards. Mike wasn’t all that good of a defender. All that NBA s-. We like Mike, we’re gonna put him up there. I’m talking about being out there. I’ve seen this m– f– get his a- bust when he couldn’t stop a m– f– against JR Rider, probably against Clyde Drexler. S-, don’t forget the early Joe Dumars. And I’m not saying that he didn’t play defense. I’m just saying that his defense wasn’t as high as most other cats at that time. I couldn’t put him on like 10 or 11 consecutive first-team all-defensive joints.”
Michael Jordan was an all-time great defender but the best at offense
If you want to see which of al NBA players was more complete, you would definitely have to pick Michael Jordan at least inside your Top 3 all-time of the best all-around players. He truly had it all and he is the only professional basketball player in history who never lost a final that he played. Starting from the finals he played in high school and moving up to college, the Olympic Games, and he NBA. Jordan won every single one and he was a leading protagonist in all of them. Although LeBron James and Stephen Curry are the best of his era, there will probably never be another player as coplete as Michael Jordan. At least until Victor Wembanyama says otherwise.