Stephen A. reacts to Jerry Stackhouse saying he wished he never played alongside MJ | First Take

He had some comments about Michael Jordan that he

wished

he hadn't

played

in the shadows at the peak of his career. Let me read this to you. He said honestly. I wish he had

never

played

in Washington and for various reasons things were still like this. review Michael Jordan's head coach Collins. I love Doug, but I think it was a chance for him to make up for some bad times they may have had in Chicago. He just soared in a way that I didn't enjoy that season. not at all, the kind of image I had in my mind of Michael Jordan and the reverence I had for him, I lost a little bit over the course of that year, Jay, you're the

first

, how do Stackhouse's comments make me Jordan look, I mean, look?

It's Michael Jordan, now let's see. I know Michael Jordan is probably the best player to ever play the game. I mean, that's up for debate, that's what people talk about these days, but there was also a tough side to Michael Jordan and a lot of people. Don't talk about his early years when he was with the Chicago Bulls, a lot of fights, a lot of tough times and look, I know this for a fact because I played against Jordan during that particular era. I know players and without

saying

names. Jerry Stackhouse wasn't the only player who had difficulties with Michael Jordan during that time in his career, it was towards the end that Michael Jordan was getting a lot of attention as he deserved it, he is a living legend but if you are a younger player You're a stack guy who wants a system built around you and you're a god who's a thoroughbred who can also carry the load, that had to be frustrating, but that's Michael Jordan. what comes with Michael Jordan because Michael Jordan was the greatest player of all time and Michael Jordan felt like he deserved the ball at that part of his career and Collins gave him the ball, so that's what comes in the territory of playing with Michael Jordan Stevie Dave, go ahead, well I was in DC that year and he was last year and you know he came back, people are forgetting now that I was the original host of Around the Horn and I was sure when I saw Jordan on last time. he was much better than an excellent Shaquille O'Neal, right, no one like in the last year of Jordan's books, like a Shack, as good as Jordan, no one and Shaq, as soon as Jordan retires, like a kid, no one he can mess with Shaq.

Olajuwon may have done it. He comes across a little different, but that was the perception anyway, so I was sure when Jordan came back, he was making the case that he was still going to be awesome, dah dah dah, and he played like a real guy, more like a point guard, like a player like me. I remember that

first

partial season, but by the last season he was really kind of an ISO scorer that he was still pretty good at. He averaged 20 points that year, but I was in DC. I went to a lot of those home games. was in that locker room it wasn't a carefree place it wasn't a place where you feel like when you're in our locker room be like where this team is rolling Jordan had a kind of he dampened the kind of enthusiasm for playing in the locker room you could feel the way I'm one of those people who says George, the greatest player of all time, is obviously right, but that year I thought it had a detrimental effect on the team and, by the way, In DC, that crowd was dead all year, you could hear a pin drop at home games and Stackhouse is probably right to complain that he was an athletic marvel at the time, but it was very much Jordan's team and that team missed the playoffs, you know?

It was because they kept giving the ball to a guy who could still score at almost a near-star level, but he obviously wasn't the best player on a powerful playoff team and Stackhouse must have felt that his development was hindered as a result. . Maybe not as much as Kwame Brown eventually, but you know he certainly could feel that way. Let me give you a couple of insider Nuggets here, number one, Jerry Stackhouse, one of the best people you will ever meet. One of the truest brothers you will ever meet. a really good guy, a really decent person is absolutely right with what he's

saying

, my response to that would be then, what do I mean?

Who cares? Because at the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. That's why I say that in The way I just said it was number one when Jerry Stackhouse was in Washington and Michael Jordan arrived. Michael Jordan did not arrive as a player. Michael Jordan arrived with the intention of ultimately being the owner of the Washington franchise. People forget that he obviously went wrong. The deal he thought he had with a bowler fell apart and as a result he ended up leaving town. No one can speak about that more eloquently than Mike Will Bond.

Mike Will Bond knows the ins and outs of that situation. He was a columnist for The Washington Post at the time, he's incredibly close to Michael Jordan, they talk often, he knew everything that was going on there, he can tell you about that stuff, chapter verse, how Jordan skated out of town because of a meeting he had where they took him out. He thought he went in there thinking he was going to be able to make demands in a survey. It's like you forgot that Poland's loyalty and love went to a guy named Wes Unseld who had won a championship for the Washington Bullets in the late '70s.

This far back in a poll with his loyal team he had none, Michael Jordan and I was upset about David Falk, that's number one, number two, if you remember, let's save Jerry Stackhouse, he started his career in Philadelphia with the 76ers, what happened to him after his rookie year, his second year, a guy named Allen Iverson arrived on the scene, everyone knew the answer was that guy, except Jerry Stackhouse. Jerry Stackhouse wasn't trying to concede anything. I know I covered the team that was my first year. year as a beat writer covering the Philadelphia 76ers, I wasn't trying to have it Allen Iverson came in there, he was averaging 19 shots to beat Jerry Stackhouse in 16 shots a game Jerry Stackhouse wasn't happy about it, he didn't want to concede anything, he thought who was still that stud in his second year in the league, he wasn't trying to concede anything to Allen Iverson, Pat Croce, Larry Brown and the franchise obviously knew better and eventually Jerry Stackhouse was sent out of town to Detroit.

Pistons before he finally ended up landing with the clock, with the clock, it's a franchise, the bottom line is that Jerry Stackhouse has always been a strong-willed, determined guy, he was an American coming out of North Carolina, he was, he was . He wasn't Jordan, but he was incredibly athletic, he had a finish at the rim, he had an aerial assault of his own. Cawood, the expectations of him as the third overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, all of these things came with Jerry Stokka, so he had his old cash, Jay. his mind had his old beliefs, whether it was Allen Iverson early in his career or a lanai or Michael Jordan later in his career, the problem is that Jerry Stackhouse didn't realize it at the time anyway the answer was that guy and When it came to Jordan, even though he wasn't going to do it in Chicago anymore, you weren't on the court alone with a basketball partner.

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