• Pau Gasol. "Right now I can't"

Legend has it that the day Michael Jordan trashed a rookie named Jerry Stackhouse , he would sing a song by Anita Baker to his ear, basket by basket. Giving You the Best That I Got . That is: I am giving you the best I have.

Stackhouse had also left the University of North Carolina and was one of many that the press announced as 'Next Jordan'. His sin was not that but to go around saying that the guy had endured Jordan in the heads-up they had played in Chapel Hill. Perhaps the Anita Baker thing is a legend, but not the 48 points that fell to him that night, the first one that he played against him in the NBA. "I haven't given him a lesson. Basketball has given him a lesson," Jordan settled.

Stackhouse was far from that label, but would play 18 seasons in the NBA and be an All-Star twice. And despite the torment of that night, in the summer of 2001 he was one of the players who came to Tim Grover's call to serve Jordan as a sparring partner.

Jordan, who had been named president of the Washington Wizards the year before, could not resist the temptation of a third coming. After a disappointing first season, he forced Rip Hamilton out and Stackhouse came in his place.

"We did everything he wanted"

"I wish I never would have played in Washington [with him]. And for various reasons. First, because I think we were on the right track in Detroit when they transferred me. And then because it was hard to play with an idol, to feel that at that moment I was better player, but to see that we still played for him, "he confessed this week in The Woj Pod .

Stackhouse was then 28 years old and in his prime, while Jordan, now 40, was rushing his last days of basketball. "I think [coach] Doug Collins was trying to make up for some of the bad times they would have had when they met in Chicago. We were doing everything Jordan wanted," Stackhouse explains.

Collins was the third coach in Jordan's career. As a player he had been an Olympic silver (he was the protagonist in that controversial final in Munich '72) and four times All-Star, but as a coach his experience was limited to three years as an assistant in university teams.

"You better let him run"

Collins still remembers the day it occurred to him to recommend Jordan to rest after overcoming that broken foot that made him miss more than 60 games. "If you have a thoroughbred, you'd better let him run," he replied.

Collins took those Bulls to a Conference Finals, but David Falk , Jordan's historic agent, says he never got along with his star. She was best married to one of her assistants, Phil Jackson . Still, he earned enough respect for Jordan to accept him as coach of the Wizards.

Jordan managed to accumulate 866 games in a row scoring at least 10 points. No one had accomplished anything like this until LeBron James topped it in 2018. The record was broken in a game against Indiana in the first season with the Wizards. Jordan had only 6 points, the game was decided and Collins decided to remove it.

Collins tells how Jordan sat next to him on the return bus. "You did what you had to do. There was no point in me continuing to score 4 more points, but I want to ask you something," Do you think I can still play? "

"Today we play for me"

The next game, Jordan scored the first four shots he had. "Today we don't make a play. Today we play for me. And don't take me out until I tell you to." With three minutes to go, everything decided, he turned to Collins and asked for the change. "I told you I could still play." At 40, he had scored 51 points. Two days later there were 45.

They were two brilliant nights in a season full of ups and downs, as would be his two years in Washington. In the summer, the team signed Stackhouse and Larry Hughes , but also failed to get into the playoffs. Stackhouse, who was at the height of his career, had fewer gallons than he expected.

"We started well, but Michael didn't like the attack to revolve around me. He wanted more post clearance, so we did more post clearance for him. And so on. I didn't enjoy that season. The image he had Jordan's in my head, and my reverence for him, they lost a little bit that year, "he recalls now.

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