I am still not sure what was going through Michael Jordan's head when he gave his Hall of Fame acceptance speech. So many times during Kobe Bryant's career I would think, "He doesn't get the media aspect. Jordan always knew how to handle the media." But on September 11th, 2009, when Michael Jordan was up there takings shots at people, I found myself thinking, "Kobe would have done that better." (Now that I think about it, I wonder what Kobe Bryant's speech will be like when he is inducted into the Hall of Fame many years from now...)
Let's get back to Jordan's speech and his reminiscing about Byron Russell. Here is the quote:
“I was in Chicago in 1994 … and at this time I had no thoughts of coming back and playing the game of basketball. Bryon Russell came over to me and said, ‘Why’d you quit? You know I could guard you. If I ever see you in a pair of shorts …’
“When I did come back in 1995 and we played Utah in ‘96, I’m at the center circle and Bryon Russell is standing next to me. I said, ‘You remember the [comments] you made in 1994 about, ‘I think I can guard you, I can shut you down, I would love to play against you? Well, you’re about to get your chance.’ “ -Yahoo Sports
Then there was the retort by Mr. Russell:
“I’ll play his a— right now,” Russell told Yahoo! Sports. “This is a call-out for him to come play me. He can come out here in his private jet and come play. He’s got millions of dollars. He can pay for the jet. He can meet me at the Recreation Center in Calabasas.
Why did Mr. Jordan bring that up? What difference does it make? Doesn't Michael know he is the greatest ever? Byron Russell never even made the All Star game. Compared to the mighty MJ, he is a nobody and everyone knows that. Why didn't Michael take a page from Kobe's book and say, "Do I know this guy? I don't know this guy..."
It didn't make any sense. But what really does not make any sense to me is Byron Russell calling him out after the speech. You're challenging Michael Jordan now? NOW? Now that he's 46 years old and out of shape? Now you want to prove something? It's too late Mr. Russell. You had your chance, make that chances to shut down Michael Jordan. Let's take a look and see how that worked...
First, a little prologue. Byron Russell played his first NBA game on November 5th, 1993. In his debut he played 1 minute and had a goose egg across all statistical categories.
Michael Jordan had already played 667 regular season games before Mr. Russell got his first minute of playing time. In 1993, Michael Jordan had three championship rings, had been named league MVP three times, had been named All-NBA 1st team nine times, been named Defensive Player of the Year, named to the All-Defensive First Team six times, nine All Star games, been named All Star MVP, won an Olympic gold medal and an NCAA Championship. Michael Jordan had achieved all this before Byron Russell got his first minute of NBA PT.
This was what Michael Jordan had accomplished when Byron Russell said, "Why’d you quit? You know I could guard you." Who is this kid...right?
Jordan did come back and he did play the Jazz several times. How did that turn out? MJ returned for the tale end of the 94-95 season and by that time the Jazz had already played both of their games with the Bulls, so there was no match up that year. Utah won both of those games.
But after that...
- 95-96 The Bulls won the first game 90-85. Jordan had 34 points on 14 of 17 shooting. The Bulls also won the second game with Jordan scoring 30 points.
- 96-97 Byron Russell gets some respectable minutes against the Bulls in the 1st game. Utah won the game win 105 to 100. However, Jordan scored 44 points on 17 of 32 shooting. The Bulls took the second game 102-89 with Jordan putting up a rather pedestrian 23 points.
The Jazz met the Bulls in the NBA Finals that year. The Bulls won it in 6 games. Jordan scored point totals that went 31,38, 26, 22, 38, 39.
- 97-98 The Jazz win both regular season games. Jordan scored 32 points in the first game and 40 in the second.
Again the Jazz met the Bulls in the Finals only this time the Jazz had home court. Same result. Bulls win it in 6. Jordan scored point totals that went 33, 37, 24, 34, 28, 45. Here's a look at points 44 and 45 at the end of game six:
Jordan retired and came back as a Wizard in 2001. This was an older, slower Jordan and Russell is now and established player. Now we're going to see the shut down Byron alluded to in 1994. The first match up between the Jazz and the Wizards occurred on November 16th, 2001. The Jazz won the game and Jordan....scored 44 points going 17 of 33 from the field.
Finally on March 21st, 2002...the Jazz and Russell were not torched by Jordan. Michael came off the bench, played 22 minutes and scored 11 points going 4 of 12 from the field. The Jazz won 94-79.
The Jazz and Wizards split the series in the 2002-2003 season. Jordan retired for the 3rd and final time. He scored 19 points in the win and 11 points in the loss. It seems that at long last the Jazz figured out how to keep Jordan under 20 points. The irony is that Byron Russell had nothing to do with it. In 2002-2003 he did not play for the Utah Jazz. He mostly came off the bench for...the Washington Wizards.
Michael Jordan's career scoring average is 30.4 point per game. In the twenty games that Jordan played against Russell, he averaged 32.65 points per game so Jordan actually did better than average when he played against teams with Byron Russell.
It was never a rivalry. Honestly, I don't know why either one of them brought it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment