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As the reverberations from The Last Dance begin to settle, we hear stories from various quarters about Michael Jordan’s incredible career and how people were awed and scared to even slightly provoke him.
Well, except for maybe Tim Duncan.
Always one to go his own way, Duncan was not particularly impressed with Jordan. Check out what he said about #23 in a 1998 interview with Dan Patrick who suggested he didn’t like Jordan because everyone else did:
“No, I don’t like Michael Jordan because I don’t like Michael Jordan. You got me wrong there. I respect Michael Jordan...I’m just somebody that isn’t impressed by him. There really isn’t anyone in the world I’m impressed with.”
It’s really a shame that Duncan’s career couldn't have overlapped with the Dream Team years because it would have been fun to see him deal with those guys. Larry Bird was an insane trash talker; Duncan would have just stared at him. Jordan would have taken those words as a grave offense against his MJness and would have tried to kill the Spurs. And the Bad Boys? The Rockets and Hakeem Olajuwon?
Duncan was great in his era but it would have been a lot of fun to see him in that one too.