Michael Jordan was such a dominant and intimidating force in his playing days that his opponents feared him, his former teammate Jud Buechler revealed. There is no comparison for that today in the NBA, according to him. The opposing players really did not want to play against Jordan.
Per Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype:
“Yeah, well, the thing that I don’t think a lot of the younger-generation players (who didn’t have a chance to see him play) understand about Michael is that people feared him. There was fear. As great as the players are in today’s game, I don’t know if anyone’s really feared like Michael was. I mean, opponents really didn’t want to play against him.”
Jud Buechler
As ‘The Last Dance’ documentary revealed, Jordan was very motivated and wanted not only to win but to humiliate his opponents. The six-time NBA champion was so competitive that he would use seemingly insignificant situations to motivate himself.
Many players shared stories on how they were schooled by Jordan after giving them a bait for extra motivation. For example, NBA legend Gary Payton shared a story on how MJ completely locked him during a game after Payton performed well in a pre-season game.
Another case was coach George Karl, who ignored the Bulls legend in a restaurant during the 1996 NBA Finals. He did that to avoid getting into mind games with Jordan and not to give him extra motivation.
