It's no surprise to anyone that Michael Jordan has an ego. He's still the leading candidate for the NBA's Greatest of all-time moniker, despite LeBron James' unbelievable career stretching into his 23rd season. Jordan is the best scorer in league history, an elite defender, and a six-time NBA Champion and Finals MVP. He's not lacking in the confidence department, and rightly so.
Throughout his career and even post-playing life, Jordan is well-known for never showing weakness or admitting someone got the better of him. To this day, he won't give players like Isiah Thomas their flowers even though Zeke bested him head-to-head many times.
MJ holds grudges against most of his former opponents, which is an endearing quality to NBA fans who miss the more hatred-filled league of the older generations. His competitive fire is rarely extinguished, even after his career has been long over. So, it's noteworthy to hear him repeatedly credit one particular player for shutting him down in 1991.
This player wouldn't be on your list of twenty guesses for who would have Jordan's number, but was actually a very underrated stud in the early 90s.
Jordan Was Humiliated in March 1991
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan, as mentioned above, absolutely refuses to give any of his contemporaries credit for making him work, or even struggle. He believes, as any superstar player does, that his bad games were simply "off nights" where he missed shots, rather than being stopped by his defender.
Although it's a false narrative that Jordan was never bested, losing five times in the playoffs before breaking through in 1991, he certainly was rarely defeated in the 1990s. Mike's Bulls won titles in six straight seasons in which Jordan played the full season, only losing to Shaquille O'Neal's Magic in 1994-95 when he returned late from minor-league baseball.
To get one over on him during his 1990s reign of terror is one of the most impressive things a player can do.
According to the GOAT, the one guy who "got in his head" was the Boston Celtics' Reggie Lewis. Very few modern NBA fans recognize the name, but Lewis was a very good player for the Celtics from 1988 to 1993. His career ended tragically when he passed away in 1993 at the age of 27. Still, Lewis' legacy lives on as an underrated historical player, but also as the guy who stopped Jordan.
On March 31, 1991, the Boston Celtics faced the Chicago Bulls. Larry Bird led Boston to an electric overtime victory, but the story was Reggie Lewis. Lewis scored 25 points on 10-20 from the field, hit a game-tying three-pointer late in the fourth, and most notably, blocked Jordan four times. He also held the five-time MVP to 12-36 shooting from the field, 17% below his average.
Lewis played all 53 minutes of the game, and guarded MJ the entire night. Jordan concedes that Lewis' long arms and competitive fire came as a surprise, causing the always-confident superstar to play tentatively. That alone is cause for celebration. According to Jordan, he'd never been blocked four times in a game before.
He had my number that particular night. He had those long arms that really bothered me. I was trying to be aggressive with him. I was trying to take advantage of his passive demeanor, but he didn't back down. He never relinquished his own aggressiveness.
Every time I thought I had him beat, he'd recover and get up on me. When you have the skills to break someone down on defense and you can't, it makes you tentative offensively. No one had ever blocked me four times before, and no one has done it since,
Jordan has continued to credit Lewis for his defense in the years that followed, even after his untimely passing. Lewis made the unstoppable player nervous that night, despite his fans having you believe he never struggled for a moment. Even the GOATs have to face challenges on their way to greatness, which MJ certainly was.
Reggie Lewis Was an Underrated Player
Reggie Lewis
Reggie Lewis played for the Celtics from 1988 to 1993. In those six seasons, he averaged 17-plus PPG in five of them, and was an All-Star in 1992. He may be forgotten in history because he played for the Celtics as they declined into the post-Larry Bird era, but Lewis was a legitimately elite player in his time.
It shouldn't be surprising that he gave Jordan a tough battle that night. His length, athleticism, and savvy defensive style is often the kind of defender who gives a superstar trouble. Combine that with his relentless attitude, and MJ was in for a tough match every time he played against Lewis.