Charles Barkley is attempting to put to sleep one of the silliest notions in NBA history. The Hall of Famer recently appeared on the Dan Patrick Show, where the subject of “superstar stoppers” was brought up.
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Chuck doesn’t care for that term at all, especially the players who referred to themselves as “Michael Jordan Stoppers.” Why does he dislike it? Because he believes that a superstar, especially one in Jordan’s echelon, cannot be stopped.
Barkley’s words were the same stance taken by P.J. Tucker, who fancied himself a stopper of Kevin Durant. Tucker once admitted on The Young Man and The Three that even though he enjoyed guarding KD, he would always get shredded. “I’m telling my teammates, he’s gonna score 50,” Tucker stated. “But I’m gonna make him work harder than anybody. I’m gonna work him,” he added.
Well, it wasn’t enough for Chuck to just criticize the “Jordan Stopper” conversation. He mocked it. “We used to laugh about that. Like are you serious right now?” asked the now 62-year-old legend.
“There is no great player who can be stopped. You can make him work hard.” To further prove this point, Barkley named a number of top players who he deemed were unguardable. “You can’t stop Giannis. You can’t stop Bird. You can’t stop Dominique Wilkins. You’re not gonna stop me.”
Basketball has always been an offense-focused game, and no one scored better than MJ. The only true shutdown factor for His Airness was the Bad Boy Pistons enforcing the “Jordan rules” tactic. Though, these ‘rules’ were simply knocking MJ to the ground through sheer physicality which doesn’t really require high defensive IQ.
Yet, Jordan was able to climb ‘Mount Detroit’, and eventually dethrone that juggernaut on his path toward capturing his first NBA Championship. Barkley talks a big game, but even he knows that there is no containing someone of MJ’s caliber.
Barkley proved his point even further when discussing whether Jordan could guard him
Patrick was intrigued by the “Jordan stopper” conversation and wondered how MJ would do defensively against the likes of Barkley. The 11-time All-Star laughed again before saying something about Jordan that not a lot of people have said in the past.
“He’s too little. Michael…he can’t guard me in the post. He’s too little,” claimed Chuck. When Patrick asked him if that was true, Barkley recalled something he actually said to the GOAT. “‘Little man. You at the wrong place at the wrong time.'”
To be fair, Barkley wasn’t pretending to be a defensive guru against Jordan either. “I can’t guard him,” he admitted when Patrick asked him to switch the tables. It’s nearly impossible to stop a scorer for an entire evening. Defense does win championships, but those defensive stops have to come in clutch time. You’re not an all-time defender if you shut down someone for one quarter.
The ongoing Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors playoff series is a prime example. The Rockets are doing everything in their power to deny Steph Curry the ball. In Game 5, it’s working out for them. But that didn’t stop The Chef from scoring 36 points in Game 3 — and it probably won’t stop him from potentially lighting them up in Game 6 or 7. Superstars are gonna score. There’s no other way around it.
