John Salley got to spend one season with Michael Jordan.
The near-7ft former NBA star was the first player in league history to win championships with three different franchises, as well as the first player in the NBA to win a championship in three different decades.
One of Salley’s four career titles came with Jordan’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, widely regarded as one of the greatest teams ever after going 72-10 in the regular season and winning that year’s Finals.
MJ won six NBA championships and six Finals MVPs across two separate three-peats in the 1990s, leading to him being universally recognized as the basketball GOAT.
But according to Salley, ‘His Airness’ doesn’t even crack his top five greatest NBA players, an omission that irked the man himself.
“When I see him now, he looks at me funny,” Salley told VladTV.
“I didn’t know why he side-eyed me, I think he thought I was upset with him.”
Salley went on to explain that he appeared on ESPN’s First Take and said he didn’t know if Michael Jordan was the greatest player to play in the NBA.
“And he [Jordan] picked up on that,” Salley explained.
Salley went on to name his top five greatest players, listing ‘The Logo’ Jerry West, Lakers legends Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and ’80s rivals Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
“Do you have a problem with that I said?” Salley says he asked on the show. “Tell me where I’m wrong [with my list].”
“From my point of view, we knew how to slow Michael down or play against him. I know everything, he doesn’t like going to his left. I know his fadeaway going right is different than his fadeaway going left.
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“I know when he dribbles the ball two times he’s going to put it in his right hand.
Salley went on to say that Michael understands his list and that it’s because he looked up to those other guys coming up.
Mike, on the other hand, was a contemporary and teammate of Sally’s, so he didn’t see him in the same light as those other legends.
The four-time champ also said he believes Jordan had the league’s backing, which helped his career.
Salley felt former NBA Commissioner David Stern went above and beyond to promote Jordan even before his championship years in the `90s
“What’s the difference with Michael is Michael came to the NBA with David Stern,” Salley went on.
“He came in with a brilliant agent, a brilliant lawyer who realized he had a product to sell. And in developing that product, we had to now make this product the Messiah.
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“In order to get people to worship it, you got to make a Messiah. Why Michael Jordan had the focus is he saved the world in Space Jam. Michael is the biggest face and the biggest thing in China. Michael became the face of the NBA. Michael is the beginning of the video game age. So kids were able to be Michael.”
Salley said that when he was a member of the ‘Bad Boy’ Detroit Piston, who won back-to-back titles in ’89 and ’90, the league still favored Jordan’s Bulls.
“When we won the second championship, back to back, 1990, [Pistons coach] Chuck Daly talks about going to New York and doing a clinic,” Salley said.
“They have a Lakers jersey, a Bulls jersey and they had a Boston jersey. No Pistons jersey and we were two-time champions. The Bulls had lost but they had Michael’s jersey.”
Stern likely realized that Jordan was the NBA’s golden goose and about to make the league millions of dollars.
He was proven correct as Air Jordan transcended basketball and became a cultural icon, inspiring kids all around the world to “be like Mike” both on and off the court.
