On his podcast, ‘Byron Scott’s Fast Break,’ former NBA champion and veteran Lakers guard Byron Scott recently shared his unique method of guarding Michael Jordan while he was playing.
Scott knew it would be challenging to stop Jordan, who is regarded as one of the most dominant and competitive players in basketball history. Instead, he chose to slow him down mentally, a strategy he called “killing with kindness.”
Scott revealed, “He wanted to embarrass you. He wanted to make you quit—for life. Every time you faced him, he wanted to make you feel like, ‘Man, I’ve got nothing. I can’t do anything with this dude. I don’t even want to play tonight.’ You know what I’m saying? He wanted to make you quit. I know a lot of guys who played against him—they wanted to go home too. They’d think, ‘Man, I’m going to foul him just so they’ll put me on the bench so I don’t have to play.'”
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He added, “The way I guarded Michael was to play back, to make him shoot jump shots. But the other thing is, every time he hit a shot, I’d be like, ‘Man, good shot, MJ. That’s a hell of a shot, dog. I was right there.’ I figured, if you kill him with kindness, that’s the best approach. But if you talk trash, even one little word, that’s all he needs, and that’s it. So I’d be like, ‘Hey, MJ, that was a good shot, dog,’ you know? I complimented him the whole night.”
Bryon Scott Once Shared How Michael Jordan Used To Intimidate And Demoralize His Opponents
In his account of protecting Michael Jordan, Bryon Scott said the renowned shooting guard had a way of scaring and discouraging his opponents. Some players dreaded the games because of Jordan’s unrelenting determination.
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On ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ a few years back, Scott related another iconic anecdote about how Jordan once drained his old teammate Anthony Peeler for 54 points. In the excerpt from the interview that follows, Scott describes how Peeler, who was assigned to protect Jordan, soon realized he was in over his head and became just another victim on Jordan’s lengthy list.
For Scott, getting through the game without succumbing to Jordan’s renowned energy was more important than winning specific skirmishes with him. Young stars might use this tactic against veterans, as the NBA gets intense every season. This might be a great piece of advice, and who knows, we can have any player use it very soon.
