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Herb Scribner
Guest
What was it like to face off with Michael Jordan? Utah Jazz legend Jeff Hornacek explains
Utah Jazz legend Jeff Hornacek appeared on his daughter’s Fox Nation special, “Guarding Jordan with Jeff & Abby Hornacek” where he opened up about what it was like to play against Michael Jordan.
Hornacek’s appearances comes as ESPN released a new documentary about Michael Jordan, called “The Last Dance,” which focuses on Jordan’s career and highlights the 1997-98 season.
Here are some snippets of what Hornacek said in the interview.
Watch the latest video at foxnews.com
On defending Jordan:
- Hornacek said: “You know, the biggest thing was I was just trying to make him shoot jump shots. You know, if he’s going to beat you by making 15 jump shots, then he beat you. You don’t want to let him go to the free throw line, which was almost impossible because I think he averaged about 10 free throws a game, you know, and maybe catch him out and make that he’s off a little bit from the outside. But that rarely happened and the one big key was don’t make him mad.”
- Hornacek said: “I think like you said, it’s a phenomenal feat to win a championship. First of all, then they won back to back. We didn’t win a championship, but that following year that we came out of the finals. Every team that we play looked at us is like, hey, this is a championship game. We were the top dog in the West. And to back that up night in and night out for us even the second year, it’s tough, these guys. Michael did it three times or twice. He won three in a row. And so that’s awfully tough. But you have to have something else, some other factor. You know, with Michael, it’s a competitiveness, his ruthlessness. I would probably guess that there’s never been a game, pickup game, he’s lost because it didn’t matter if it was practice or a game. He was plying it full out because he hated to lose. And I think those traits are what made him the superstar he was.”
- Hornacek said: “Well, you know, it’s always exciting for all of us. First of all, we were all getting older. You know, back then when you were ... most of the guys, when we came up as young players, when you were 30, you were pretty much done in the league. And here we are at that point when we finally made it. We had played the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals and they won. They beat us and they won five. They won the championship. And then we lost to Seattle in game 7. And then Seattle went to play the Bulls and the Bulls beat them in the year right before that.
- “So for us, we finally got over the hump. And it was exciting that here we are, and I think we were probably 34, 35, 34 at the time. The first time it was a huge hurdle that all of us, John and Karl and I have never been in the finals, and we’re excited to play. And yeah, it was Michael Jordan and it was going to be a fun finals. But I think the age we were kept that butterflies, excitement really out of the picture. We were basketball players and we were all looking forward to the games.”
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