The six NBA championship rings on Michael Jordan's long fingers were not given to him. He earned it by dedicating his whole life to the game. He worked day and night working on his weaknesses as well as strengthening his mind and body. He did all these to outlast his contemporaries, all of whom had the same goal: win the title by any means necessary.
Aware of how tough the competition was, Jordan customized his training regimen with respect to those players he believed would be major obstacles to his goal. As such, we can safely say that Jordan is now regarded as the GOAT because his opponents pushed him. Given this, let's take a look at Jordan's five most hated rivals on the court.
5. John Starks
Standing just 6-foot-3, John Starks did not back down from guarding a Michael Jordan who was at his peak. Starks took the task of defending Jordan during the Bulls' playoff run throughout the dynasty, but especially during the first three-peat. His scrappy, defensive-minded approach made him the perfect player to take on the most gifted scorer of all time.
Most Bulls fans probably know Starks as one of the players Jordan faked out en route to driving baseline and slamming it all over Patrick Ewing. But Starks, too, spiked one all over the Bulls in one of their playoff games. After shedding B.J. Armstrong, Starks drove to the hoop, rose up, and slammed one over two Bulls players: Horace Grant and Michael Jordan.
4. Clyde Drexler
Back in the day, when Michael Jordan was still trekking the long and tough road to basketball immortality, Clyde Drexler of the Portland Trail Blazers was always mentioned alongside him.
After all, they were both shooting guards, almost had the same height and build, and most of all, they seemed to mirror each other's games. Like Jordan, Drexler flew up in the air with gravity-defying dunks. He also had a reliable jump shot. Adding to all of this, the Blazers passed on Jordan in the 1984 NBA Draft because they already had Drexler.
Drexler and Jordan were considered the two premier shooting guards in the league during their primes. But in the 1992 NBA Finals, Jordan made it a point to destroy Drexler and stake his claim as the best. The Bulls beat the Blazers in six games, giving Jordan his second title.
3. Reggie Miller
Reggie Miller was not just known for his 3-point shooting and clutch shots, he was also regarded as a big-time trash talker. This fact alone made their duels entertaining. Stories about Michael Jordan's bad mouth are legendary. No one seemed to talk back when he started talking, but Reggie never held back. He spoke smack to Jordan and didn't care.
Perhaps one of their most famous matchups was in February 1993. Jordan seemingly had enough of Miller's rough play and trash talking, so he sucker punched the Indiana Pacers star and a shoving match followed. Miller was thrown out of the game and fined $6,000. Jordan was suspended and fined $10,000.
Later in their careers, Miller's Pacers nearly knocked off the Bulls in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals. Miller infamously hit a game-winning shot in Game 4 after blatantly pushing off from Jordan, and Indiana took the Bulls all the way to a Game 7 before falling short.
2. Gary Payton
Gary Payton earned the nickname “The Glove” because of how good he was on the defensive end of the floor. Some even say that he's the greatest defender at the guard spot ever. He was a nine-time NBA All-Defensive First Team selection and was crowned Defensive Player of the Year in 1996.
In that same year, his Seattle SuperSonics met the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals. As it is known, Michael Jordan and the Bulls won their fourth title in six years. But a look into the statistics reveals that Payton and the entire team did a splendid job guarding Jordan. The Bulls guard averaged 27.3 points per game but shot just 41.5 percent in the series. While decent numbers, they're nowhere near Jordan's standards.
The interesting thing about this was Payton only guarded Jordan in the final three games of the series. In these games, Jordan chalked up mere 23-, 26-, and 22-point scoring totals. Now, some are wondering what would've happened if Sonic coach George Karl told Payton to guard Jordan at the very beginning.
1. Isiah Thomas
Before Michael Jordan and the Bulls won their first of six titles, they were stonewalled by the Detroit Pistons over and over again — three straight years to be exact. Dubbed as the Bad Boys of basketball, the Pistons were led by a scrappy guard named Isiah Thomas.
Jordan and the Bulls were on the rise in the late '80s. But Thomas and the Bad Boys showed them that they were still the kings of the hard court for a few years. They proved it not through finesse and basketball poetry, but through grit, grind, and aggressiveness.
Rumors suggested that Thomas didn't like Jordan from the get-go. When Jordan was named an All-Star as a rookie in 1985, Thomas allegedly helped freeze out MJ because he did not want a mere rookie to outshine the veterans.
In 1991 after Jordan's Bulls finally vanquished Thomas' Pistons in four games, Isiah walked off the court without shaking hands. The next year, Jordan got more revenge by keeping Thomas off the Dream Team.
While they seem to have ironed things out since, the Thomas-Jordan rivalry is one of the most heated conflicts in league history. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson only hated each other on the court, but Thomas and Jordan took things personally.
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