Although he never earned an All-Defensive team selection during his NBA career, peers considered Brian Shaw a great defensive player. At 6’6″, he was a tall point guard and his size plus willingness to guard the opposing team’s best guard made him a valuable defensive asset.
When it comes to his toughest matchups, Shaw named the obvious, Michael Jordan, as the hardest player to guard. But he also said that there was this unlikely guard with whom he always had problems because he had a move that B-Shaw could never time.
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“I think the obvious choice is Michael Jordan, but a guy that probably nobody out there knows, a guy named Steve Colter. He had a Jerry curl. And that herky jerk, I could never get his cadence, cuz I picked up people full court,” said Shaw on Byron Scott’s podcast.
He had a deadly signature move
Colter was the 33rd overall pick of the 1984 NBA Draft out of New Mexico State by the Portland Trail Blazers. After only two years with the Blazers, he was traded to the Chicago Bulls, where he became Michael Jordan’s teammate.
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But after only 28 games, Chicago dealt Colter and a future second-round pick to the Philadelphia 76ers for guard Sedale Threatt. He also played for the Washington Bullets, Sacramento Kings, and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The 6’3″ guard played just eight years in the league, with modest career averages of 6.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game. However, Colter had a reputation as a crafty ball-handler with a signature move that almost always put his defenders on skates.
“You look at him, you be like, ‘Oh yeah, I can get him.” And then he comes down, and he goes through his legs, and it seemed like he was double-jointed or something. He dropped his knee and then threw the ball behind his back, and be over here and I’m over there,” added Shaw.
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Zeke called it the “crooked leg” move
Like Shaw, Hall of Famer and former Detroit Pistons captain Isiah Thomas also said that Colter was the toughest player to guard during his era. Thomas even said he’d rather guard the other team’s best player than defend Colter because of his signature move.
“He had a move. I could not get his move. We would call it the crooked leg. He’s going right, full speed, and he would stop, plant his left leg really hard and then he would throw the ball behind his back. And so, Washington had this great scorer that goes by the name of Jeff Malone. And we would come to the Arena, we were playing the Washington Bullets, and I would say to Dumars ‘Hey, you take Steve Colter. I got Jeff Malone,'” said Thomas.
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As Byron Scott told Shaw on the show, most current NBA fans don’t know who Colter is. However, for the best guards during the 1980s, he was an enigma for defensive players because his dribble move was as deadly as the crossover that Allen Iverson hit Michael Jordan with.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 3, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.