WNBA icon Sheryl Swoopes built a career filled with iconic moments. She was the first player ever to sign with the league, won three MVP awards, and led the now-defunct Houston Comets to the WNBA’s first four championships. A three-time Olympic gold medalist and Hall of Famer, Swoopes also made history as the first woman to have a Nike signature shoe — the Air Swoopes. The name, reminiscent of ‘Air Jordan,’ ties her to Michael Jordan in more ways than one. Fittingly, one of the most significant, yet lesser-known, moments of her career involved the Chicago Bulls legend himself.
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During a recent Fanatics Fest sit-down, Swoopes narrated a story about facing off with Jordan in a 1v1. Before diving into the details, however, she quickly clarified that she wasn’t the one to go up against MJ. MJ went up against her. To avoid controversy, she also dismissed any claims that she hinted at being good enough for the NBA.
For Swoopes, Jordan is the greatest of all time. “His Airness” at his peak was so good that he changed the NBA forever, by bringing in millions of eyeballs from all over the world. He made basketball cool. When MJ dunked a ball, others simply stood watching in awe, more often than not. But when Jordan tried to dunk on Swoopes, he failed.
“He did try to dunk on me, though. I didn’t let that happen. That pride. I just grabbed him out of the air and just pulled him out of the air. Like ‘Mike, I love you and all,’ [but] that pride thing. The pride would not let that happen,” the 54-year-old revealed. Jordan, however, wasn’t upset and, quite possibly, was impressed.
The game left Swoopes with a rather unforgettable souvenir. “I got his T-shirt. I got his North Carolina one of his favorite North Carolina t-shirts,” she added.
That said, the fact that she once stopped a two-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner — and arguably the GOAT — from dunking begs the question: could she have held her own against other, perhaps less dominant, NBA players? Swoopes, however, wasn’t too concerned with entertaining that idea.
With the WNBA’s growth over the past decade, there has been the occasional light-hearted debate about women challenging men one-on-one. Brittney Griner famously joked in 2016 that she could beat DeMarcus Cousins — to which Cousins, unsurprisingly, clapped back.
But Swoopes kept it real. “No, I do not think I could have played in the NBA,” she said. “Not to take anything away from the game and the talent, but it’s different. Men — y’all are just built differently than we are. You’re naturally bigger, stronger, and taller. All those things — not more skilled, but all the other things.”
Still, she idolized Jordan, and understandably so. After all, he’s an inspiration to people from other disciplines who don’t even play the sport. Swoopes looked up to MJ so much that she once even asked him if she could name his son after him. “He actually put his hand on my stomach and said, ‘The only way you can name him after me is if he has a good jump shot.'” Hilariously, Swoopes quipped right back. “I remember saying to him… He’s gonna have a better jump shot than you ever had.”
The anecdote involving MJ captures why Sheryl Swoopes remains a WNBA icon—a competitor unafraid to meet legends on their level, even when they try to dunk on her.
