When it comes to the NBA Finals, one of the gold standards is the career of Michael Jordan. Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to 6 NBA Finals during his career, which resulted in 6 championships and 6 Finals MVPs for Jordan. Despite what many modern-day fans will tell you, Michael Jordan played some of the stiffest competition in history on his way to and in the NBA Finals. Once he won his first championship in 1991, Jordan developed an insatiable appetite for winning, and in his path of destruction, were left some of the greatest NBA legends to ever stop on an NBA court.
Michael Jordan wasn’t always the winner we know and celebrate him as. Before 1991, he and the Bulls struggled against some of the league’s top teams such as the Celtics, Pistons, and Bucks. These teams were littered with Hall of Famers themselves and, despite Jordan’s tremendous efforts, his team fell short. Today, we will be talking about the NBA legends that he did defeat. The ones he left ringless in their careers. The best legends that were the final stepping stone on Jordan’s path to becoming the greatest player of all time.
Here are the 10 best players that Michael Jordan beat in the NBA Finals.
10. Dan Majerle
By no means are we going to classify Dan Majerle as a superstar of the 90s. What he was, however, was one of the best defenders in basketball and the prototypical 3 and D wing whose main job was to slow down the opponent’s best player. Majerle was athletic, strong, and had hands as quick as anybody in the NBA. Majerle was a master disruptor and about as cool, calm, and collected as it gets with quick hands and feet that you would ask of any premier defender. When Majerle and the Suns faced off against Jordan in the ’93 NBA Finals, not even Majerle could do anything to slow him down.
The task of defending Michael Jordan fell upon the duo of Majerle and point guard Kevin Johnson. They did all they could to try and contain “His Airness” but ultimately Jordan had the last laugh. Jordan would obliterate the Suns in 6 games with averages of 41.0 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 6.3 APG, and 1.7 SPG. He shot 50.8% from the field for the series and 40.0% from the 3-point range. Majerle had a decent series himself, averaging 17.2 PPG, 8.2 RPG, and 1.3 SPG. The win for Chicago was their 3rd championship in a row and the 3rd Finals MVP in a row for Jordan.
9. Kevin Johnson
Kevin Johnson has a case to be considered the most underrated player in the history of the NBA. He was a fast and high-scoring point guard with incredible athleticism. Hakeem Olajuwon can confirm this. Johnson was a 3-time All-Star who at his peak was a consistent 20.0 PPG, 10.0 APG, and 1.5 SPG at minimum. Things were slightly different for Johnson during the 93; season as he missed 33 games due to injuries, but he was still effective enough to run the offense to the NBA Finals.
Johnson was assigned with the harrowing task of helping Dan Majerle on Jordan in the ’93 Finals. Of course, Johnson had his own assignment in John Paxson, but Jordan was everyone’s main focus. Johnson averaged 17.2 PPG and 6.5 APG for the series, but his efforts were not enough to overcome the complete all-around game of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Jordan averaged 41.0 PPG for the series and claimed Finals MVP. Johnson would make his 3rd and final All-Star appearance the following season and finish out his career with the Suns retiring in 2000.
8. Shawn Kemp
Shawn Kemp is one of the more athletically gifted players of the 1990s. He made the game exciting with his rick-rocking dunks and the way he and his teammate Gary Payton ran in transition. Kemp could bowl you over on his way to the basket or he could stop 12-15 feet away and knock down jumpers. When he had everything in his arsenal working, he was next to impossible to guard and even gave Jordan a run for his money in the 1996 NBA Finals.
Shawn Kemp led the SuperSonics to the ’96 Finals behind a 64-win season of 19.6 PPG and 11.4 RPG. He and the Sonics battled their way to the NBA Finals where they met a rejuvenated Jordan and the Chicago Bulls who had just won 72 games in the regular season. In the Finals, Kemp was the best player on the floor not named Michael Jordan as he averaged 23.3 PPG, 10.0 RPG, and 2.0 BPG. Jordan would take his team to the promised land for the 4th time, claiming Finals MVP with 27.3 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 4.2 APG, and 1.7 SPG.
7. Gary Payton
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Gary Payton is widely recognized, as he should be, as one of the greatest point guard defenders of all time. His face-to-face and nose-to-nose pitbull-like mentality are what set him apart as one of the few people that showed no fear when lining up against Michael Jordan. Payton was the Defensive Player of the Year in 1996 and led the league with 2.9 SPG. It was he who was the catalyst for the 64-win Sonics that season and what put them over the top as a legitimate challenger against the Bulls in the NBA Finals.
The one thing we were robbed of in the 1996 NBA Finals was a full, healthy Gary Payton. Payton had damage in his calf that limited him in the first 3 games of the series when he was supposed to be the primary defender on MJ. When Payton was finally healthy enough to take on the challenge, he got more physical with Jordan than anyone else had up to that point, and the Sonics won back-to-back games because of it. Of course, Game 6 headed in a different direction, and the Bulls were crowned champions for the 4th time in 6 years.
6. James Worthy
James Worthy is easily the most disrespected member of the “Showtime Lakers” era. While Magic and Kareem were getting all of the credit, Worthy was a consistent 20.0 PPG, 6.0 RPG, and 1.0 SPG player alongside them. His game was athletic and looked effortless as he glided down the floor and was on the receiving end of many fast break opportunities for the Lakers during the 80s and 90s. Worthy also won a title with Michael Jordan at the University Of North Carolina in 1982 where the two developed a lifeline friendship. When they met in the NBA Finals in 1991, however, it was all business.
Worthy was great for the Lakers in the first 4 games of the series, even playing 45 minutes in Game 1 to lead the Lakers to victory. It would be the only game the Lakers would win as Jordan took over from there and claimed Finals MVP by averaging 31.2 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 11.4 APG, and 2.8 SPG. Worthy performed exceptionally averaging 19.3 PPG but missed Game 5 with an injury he sustained in Game 4. Without Worthy on the floor, the Bulls cruised to their first championship and the legacy of Michael Jordan had only begun to be written.
5. Clyde Drexler
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Clyde Drexler is another high-flying, athletic scorer of the 1990s who was denied by Michael Jordan in the 1992 NBA Finals. Drexler was a relentless scorer from all three levels and one of the best offensive rebounders at the position as well. If there was an errant shot, you would be guaranteed to see the blur of Drexler’s jersey crashing the offensive boards. He was a nonstop workhorse who accumulated his points off of fast breaks and cuts without the ball. Clyde was so great, many questioned if he was the better player than Jordan headed into the 1992 NBA Finals. Jordan took it personally.
Drexler had himself a great series averaging 24.8 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 5.3 APG, and 1.3 SPG on 40.7% shooting. Jordan had an even better one as the Bulls defended their championship successfully by taking down Portland in 6 games. Jordan claimed his second straight Finals MVP award by averaging 35.8 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 6.5 APG on 52.6% shooting. No one ever questioned if Drexler was on Jordan’s level again.
4. John Stockton
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John Stockton is one of the greatest point guards in the history of the game. He is the NBA’s all-time assists and steals leader, which is evidence of his impact on both sides of the court. One common misconception about him as a point guard is that all of his assists consisted of dump-off passes to Karl Malone, which is inherently false. Stockton led the league in assists 9 seasons in a row from 1988 through 1996 and led the Jazz to the Finals twice in 1997 and 1998.
Stockton was not asked to score. His job was to be the playmaker and facilitator he had built his Hall of Famer career off of being. Between the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals, Stockton averaged 12.3 PPG, 8.8 APG, and 2.0 SPG in 12 games. Jordan torched the Jazz in back-to-back Finals appearances with him and the Bulls dismissing them both times in 6 games. The Jazz simply had no answer for Jordan, who averaged 32.3 PPG in the 1997 Finals and 33.5 PPG in 1998. These 2 appearances were the only 2 Finals appearances in Stockton’s career and he probably would have a championship ring if it wasn’t for the greatest player of all time.
3. Charles Barkley
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Charles Barkley is one of the greatest all-around power forwards in the game’s history. He was a relentless rebounder, scorer, defender, and playmaker. The year he met Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals was the first year he spent with the Phoenix Suns and also happened to be the year he took home the MVP award. Barkley averaged 25.6 PPG, 12.2 RPG, and 4.6 APG in 1993 while leading the Suns to a 62-20 record.
Barkley’s stellar play continued in the playoffs as he averaged 26.6 PPG and 13.6 RPG to lead the Suns to the NBA Finals for a face-off with Jordan and the Bulls who were going for their 3rd championship in a row. Barkley averaged 27.3 PPG and 13.0 RPG in the Finals, but it was not enough to overcome 41.0 PPG from Jordan and the Suns fell in 6 games. This was Jordan’s 3rd straight title and 3rd straight Finals MVP performance. Charles Barkley would never advance to another NBA Finals.
2. Karl Malone
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To put it simply, there is no love lost between Michael Jordan and Karl Malone. The two were bitter rivals in the NBA and have become even bigger ones since their retirement. Karl Malone was a physical power forward whose brute strength and freak athleticism were his greatest weapons. Malone ran the floor like a guard and finished at the rim like a big but could also pull out and shoot like a small forward. He was the complete package on offense and ended up scoring the 3rd most points in NBA history. He would be crowned a 2x MVP, including in 1997, when that was all the motivation Jordan needed heading into their showdown in the 1997 NBA Finals.
Malone was a beast in the 1997 Finals, averaging 23.8 PPG and 10.3 RPG in 6 games for the series. The Jazz were defeated in 1997 when Jordan took the fact that Malone was named MVP to heart and averaged 32.3 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 1.2 SPG to secure his 5th cham[pionship and Finals MVP. Utah had an even better chance to win a title in 1998 when they met up with the Bulls once again in the NBA Finals. One more time, Jordan took over the series and secured his 6th title for the Chicago Bulls. Malone did everything he could with 25.0 PPG and 10.5 RPG, but no one was going to stop Jordan and the Bulls from celebrating their “last dance”.
1. Magic Johnson
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Widely regarded as the best point guard to ever play the game, Magic Johnson is hands down the best player that Michael Jordan ever defeated in the NBA Finals. Magic is the best I have ever seen run a fast-break offense and lead a team as a traditional point guard would. He could score when they needed him to and defend any position that may be in front of him. His main responsibility was to play to his strengths and control the pace of the game as only Magic knew how. In the 1991 NBA Finals, however, the torch would be officially passed from Magic to Mike.
The matchup of Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan in the 1991 NBA Finals is all anyone could talk about at the time. The best player of the 90s going up against Magic, who many considered to be the best they had ever seen up until that point. The two went head-to-head and traded shots like two heavyweights in the center of a boxing ring. Jordan even took on the challenge of guarding Magic in all but 1 game of the series. Johnson was the best player on the floor for the Lakers, averaging 18.6 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 12.4 APG, and 1.2 SPG. Jordan responded by averaging 31.2 PPG, 11.4 APG, 2.8 SPG, and 1.4 BPG over the 5 games and shot 55.8% from the field. The Bulls won their first championship in franchise history and the proverbial torch was officially passed from Johnson to Jordan.
