Facing Michael Jordan was the most arduous matchup for guards in the 1980s and 1990s. The thought of lining up across the Bulls icon sent shivers down many spines. Most players would confess having nightmares about facing the six-time NBA champion, but not Vernon Maxwell. Not because the former Spurs star wasn’t intimidated by the challenge, but because he couldn’t even sleep the night before he battled the five-time MVP.
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During an appearance on Theo Pinson’s Tidal League pod, Maxwell revealed he was restless before his first game against Jordan in his rookie season in the 1988-89 campaign. He explained he felt uneasy and couldn’t get any shut-eye because he knew the superstar guard would show him no mercy on the court. Maxwell said,
“No sleep the night before [I faced Jordan for the first time] because I was like anxious and nervous and ready you know I was playing against the best player ever and you can get embarrassed cuz this motherfu**er put his feet on your throat and don’t take it off. He is going to try to embarrass your a**”
The two-time NBA champion revealed he was so scared of being schooled by Jordan that he didn’t want to face him at all. He was content guarding a point guard instead because he knew he wasn’t as well-versed defensively as his teammate Alvin Robertson, who was a terrific perimeter defender.
Maxwell didn’t want to guard an athletic Jordan who could destroy him in the post and take him to the cleaners with his lightning-fast first step. He said,
“I wasn’t fu**in’ with him like that. When I played, he was so strong, fast, man. That motherfu**er, he changed his game from he started learning how to post up and put his back to the basket, that’s when he was shimmy shaking on your a** and turn and shoot that motherfu**er, oh my goodness.”
However, Maxwell’s first outing against Jordan on February 9, 1989, wasn’t as terrible as he envisioned. While the Bulls won 108-103, the Spurs defense held him to 23 points on 9-of-20 shooting, 10 points below his scoring average for the season, and forced him to commit six turnovers.
Maxwell had a terrific night, scoring 19 points on an impressive 8-of-15 shooting. His worst fears may not have come true that night, but he, and players much better than him like Shaquille O’Neal, knew better than to believe they could contain Jordan every time they faced them.
Shaquille O’Neal confessed to being scared of Jordan
MJ didn’t just strike fear in the smaller opposing guard, but also even bigger and more muscular players. O’Neal also feared the worst every time he faced the Bulls icon. In an appearance on the IMPAULSIVE podcast in 2022, the four-time NBA champion said,
“He is the only man that had me terrified on the court. Went from high school, admiring him, to college, admiring him, and then he is right there in front of you, doing all the things you’ve seen on posters in real life. He came by me so fast sometimes, I was like, ‘Oh, s**t’. Yeah, I was terrified.”
O’Neal’s testimony sums up how intimidating even the league’s finest found Jordan to be.
