Paul Pierce Explains How Tough It Was To Guard A 40-Year-Old Michael Jordan

Paul Pierce detailed how hard it was to guard a 40-year-old Michael Jordan when he played for the Washington Wizards.

Credit: Fadeaway World

During the prime of his career, Michael Jordan was one of the most enjoyable players in the NBA. MJ achieved everything that a player could think to achieve in the league. As a result, he established himself as the greatest basketball player of all time.

While Mike earned the biggest accolade of his career during his time with the Chicago Bulls, he also played two seasons with the Washington Wizards as well. This was the third time that Jordan played in the NBA after retiring two previous times. Jordan labeled it as one of the biggest mistakes of his career.

Although Michael Jordan was a shell of himself at the time, and his time with the Wizards was ridiculed with injuries, he was still a good enough player to be respected by opponents.

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Paul Pierce Faced Off Against A 40-Year-Old Michael Jordan

Even though Jordan was on his last legs during his time with the Wizards, he still talked trash to his teammates. So much so that Mike was even hated by his teammates during his stint with the team. But Jordan still managed to back up his confidence with his performance against the rising stars of the league.

Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce was one of the players that faced off against Jordan during his stint with the Wizards. Pierce once explained how it was facing a 40-year-old Jordan.

"I had a chance to play against Michael Jordan but it was when he had the Wizards uniform on so it wasn't quite prime Michael Jordan, it was 40-year-old Michael Jordan. I remember he still was phenomenal. He still had great footwork and he actually gave me about 30 points. It was like my 3rd year in the league. He's still one of the probably one of the top ten athletes in the game. 

Considering Pierce was an up-and-coming player at the time, he was expected to become a future star in the league. Keeping that in mind, Jordan didn't back down and gave Pierce a matchup of his life.

Speaking of Jordan's time with the Wizards, he played just two games with the team and averaged 21.2 PPG, 5.9 RPG, and 4.4 APG during the 142 games that he played for the organization.

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