Michael Jordan Knew He Had to Work Against Joe Dumars

Michael Jordan knew he had to work against Joe Dumars
Posted by Patrick Hayes | Full Court Press September 11, 2009 11:24AM



The battles between Michael Jordan and Joe Dumars are well-documented. While Dumars gave up his share of points to Jordan, few were able to make M.J. work as hard.

But Jordan is also known for not having much respect for guys who were tasked with defending him each night, including some legendary battles with John Starks and Reggie Miller among others.

Dumars was different though, as Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski points out:

Funny thing, too: Dumars would watch those series with the Knicks and Indiana Pacers, watch Jordan get into vicious trash-talking episodes with John Starks and Reggie Miller, and it amazed him. With Dumars and Jordan, that never happened. "Not in 14 years was there ever a negative word said between us," Dumars said.

In fact, Jordan would ask about Dumars' wife and kids, and Dumars would ask about Jordan's, and there wouldn't be much else for the next 2½ hours of basketball. "I would take a tough screen and get hit hard by another player and he would walk by under his breath, 'You OK?' And I'd do the same with him. But for us, that was it."



We know that Dumars has talked at length about the difficulty in guarding M.J., who has called Dumars the best defender he's ever faced. But statistically, does it show up?

Jordan played 52 games (not counting the Wizards years, when Dumars had already retired) against the Pistons in the Dumars era, averaging 30.3 points per game on 47 percent shooting. Compare that to his career averages (again, non-Wizards ... I like to pretend those two years never happened) of 31.5 points per game on 51 percent shooting.

I can't imagine how frustrating it would be for a defender to guard someone so well that he shoots four percent less from the field against your team and that still puts him at 47 percent. Unreal.