“Naturally, I Was Compared to Michael Jordan”: $40M Worth Former UNC Star Considered Bulls Legend ‘Just Another Brother’ to Deal With the Pressure
A comparison with Michael Jordan is not what you would want if you want to become a basketball player after growing up, but that is what Jerry Stackhouse received starting his career in North Carolina.
After completing his high school at Oak Hill Academy, Stackhouse, the top prep player to come out of North Carolina since MJ, went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill much like the 6x NBA champ. And the comparisons grew stronger.
Jerry Stackhouse had to grow up with the expectations to be like Michael Jordan
On the latest episode of All The Smoke, the 18-year NBA veteran talked to Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson about his mentality to ignore all the comparisons involving him and Jordan and how he kept his focus on making it to the top without letting small success blind him.
The man who was “naturally compared to Michael Jordan” considered the GOAT “just another brother” who played basketball, maybe to deal with the expectations better.
That might be the reason for both Jerry’s success and his failure. The man played 18 years in the league, averaged over 16 points per game, and still had just two All-Star selections to show for it.
Stackhouse had it worse with his luck
Fate did not side with the $40M worth forward ever in his career. Even before his form started to dip, the former Sixers’ was dealt away by his second franchise – the Detroit Pistons, just 2-years before they won the championship in 2004.
The same thing happened to him in Dallas in 2009, but by then he had dropped well below 20 points per game for various reasons including injuries.
It looked totally unlucky when he was waved by the Heat in 2011, the year LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh would win their first championship. Luck really did him bad.
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