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Steve Nash Admits He Experienced Fear Playing Against Michael Jordan

Steve Nash is widely-regarded as one of the best point guards to ever play the game. His toughness and competitive spirit remain unquestioned; he was able to sustain a successful 18-year career while battling against some of the toughest and grittiest competitors in the NBA. But according to Nash, facing Jordan wasn’t like any other.

Drafted in 1996, Nash was able to play against Jordan during his Chicago Bulls tenure, then later on, with the Washington Wizards. In a recent episode of ‘All The Smoke Podcast’ with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, Nash described what was it like to play against arguably the Greatest Player of All-Time.

“We didn’t have so much access back then to every single thing on Instagram, or YouTube, let alone watching games live so MJ was must-see TV…He just had this charisma on top of all the gifts and skills and mentally, you know how great he is,” Steve Nash said about Michael Jordan.

“Playing against him, the one thing that I think he was unlike any other player I’ve played against is that there was a real fear playing against him. I’ve never seen the league be kinda fearful of a player or have that much reverence for a player.”

 

It isn’t too surprising that Nash would say something like this about Jordan. In fact, he was just one of the many NBA players who have demonstrated Jordan’s unrivaled figure and personality on the court. Perhaps, Jordan was just one of a kind and this is precisely why he was able to establish a streak of dominance during his playing days. 

Nash and Jordan went head to head for eight games from 1997 to 2003. In those eight meetings, both players equally won 4 games against each other. Nash, playing with the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns, averaged 12.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game on 42.7% FG against Jordan’s Bulls and Wizards, whereas Jordan averaged 24.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game on 46% FG.