Getty Michael Jordan and Steve Kerr during the NBA Finals.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has been around some of the best players in NBA history. He won two championships with San Antonio Spurs legends Tim Duncan and David Robinson and has won three titles as a coach with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, with two of those rings coming during the Kevin Durant era.
However, Kerr’s greatest basketball partner of all time is the one and only Michael Jordan, who won six titles with the Chicago Bulls and went undefeated in the Finals during the ’90s. MJ finished his career with 10 scoring titles, five regular-season MVPs and six Finals MVPs and is the NBA’s all-time leader in points per game and player efficiency rating.
The GOAT debate between Jordan and LeBron James grew even louder after the latter won his fourth title and fourth Finals MVP in 2020 with the Los Angeles Lakers. While Kerr recognizes how special LeBron is, he believes Jordan is the greatest player in NBA history for multiple reasons.
Kerr Talks About Jordan
During an interview with Jon Greenberg of The Athletic, Kerr talked about why Jordan is incomparable to anyone in NBA history.
“I mean, he is the greatest player of all time, so there’s a reason that most people agree on that,” Kerr said. “It goes beyond the shotmaking, it’s the totality of everything. He just had this incredible package of skill and knowledge and experience and it all added up to this aura he was just better than everyone by far. I think the most underrated aspect of Michael’s game was his emotional dominance in the arena every night. And I still have not seen that from anybody.”
Jordan averaged 31.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists during his storied run with the Bulls. He’s one of three players in NBA history to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season — Giannis Antetokounmpo and Hakeem Olajuwon are the other two — and prevented Hall of Famers Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone and John Stockton from winning championships.
The Bulls three-peated twice behind Jordan, who averaged 33.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists in 35 Finals games. Kerr, who finished his playing career with five championships, told Greenberg that Jordan and LeBron are “the two best players of all time.”
However, the former sharpshooter admitted that Jordan’s mystique was almost like a “spell over every game.”
Kerr on Jordan: ‘He Was Kind of Invincible’
Kerr won three rings with Jordan in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Before the 1995-96 season, Jordan punched Kerr in the face and was kicked out of practice by Bulls head coach Phil Jackson.
However, His Airness called Kerr a few hours later to apologize and the two became good friends. The Warriors’ tactician, who has shared the floor with so many basketball icons and coached many outstanding players, told Greenberg that Jordan’s ability to dominate games physically and emotionally was incredible to witness.
“There was just this sense from everybody in the gym, the opponent, the other coaching staff, the officials, fans, there was just a sense that he was better than everybody and he was going to dominate the game,” Kerr said. “And he was kind of invincible. So it went beyond his skill set and his competitiveness and his size and speed and footwork. It just went beyond all that because he was so dominant emotionally. It was like he cast a spell over every game.”
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion when it comes to the GOAT debate. There’s no right or wrong answer. Both Jordan and LeBron are once-in-a-generation players who defied gravity whenever they jumped to either dunk the ball or block a shot.