Gilbert Arenas thinks Scottie Pippen made Jordan a better defender.
Part of Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan’s theoretical best case against LeBron James is that Jordan was considered to have elite defensive abilities. Although Jordan couldn’t guard as many positions as James, the Bulls icon was widely considered an elite point guard, helping him become one of the league’s first true “two-way” players.
Recently, former Washington Wizards star and current podcaster Gilbert Arenas weighed in Jill’s Arena Show podcaster explains why he believes Jordan’s defensive prowess was largely due to his legendary teammate Scottie Pippen.
“Think about the first time he was named to the All-Defensive Team. This is Scottie Pippen’s year to play,” Arenas said. “Before Scottie Pippen came, he wasn’t considered a defensive player. Because now he and Scottie Pippen can do their thing and when he’s on the ball, Scottie Pippen Peng, you follow me. Scottie Pippen, when you have the ball, I’m going to score everything. Yeah, so they have a great system.”
In fact, it was often Scottie Pippen, not Michael Jordan, who had the toughest defensive assignments for opponents, giving Jordan leeway to gamble (on the basketball court) to get more steals and create More fast break highlights. were able.
Of course, this shouldn’t take away from the defensive abilities that Michael Jordan did possess, especially as that side of the ball has been legislated out of the game in recent years, in part because of rule additions like the three-second defensive violation that helped improve Jordan and James Wait for the number of points scored by a superstar.