{"id":292843,"date":"2025-09-19T22:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T22:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/292843\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T22:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T22:55:12","slug":"he-couldnt-run-a-team-like-i-could-magic-on-why-mj-dominated-one-on-one-but-couldnt-impact-the-game-like-he-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/292843\/","title":{"rendered":"“He couldn’t run a team like I could” – Magic on why MJ dominated one-on-one but couldn’t impact the game like he did"},"content":{"rendered":"

The general opinion of NBA fans and media is that Michael Jordan<\/a> is the greatest shooting guard of all time and Magic Johnson<\/a> is the greatest point guard of all time. The truth is that both were the best in their craft in terms of what their positions demanded on the floor.<\/p>\n

As for MJ, no one has ever dominated offensively like him, which is confirmed by his 10 scoring titles, with Wilt Chamberlain next in line with “only” seven. The general belief is that in one-on-one, he was unstoppable. When Magic was once asked if he could beat his 1992 Dream Team teammate, Magic gave an intriguing answer.<\/p>\n

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“Michael would win. That’s not my game. My game is assisting, setting up my teammates. Michael’s the greatest one-on-one player. I couldn’t go out and drop 60 like him, but he couldn’t run a team like I could” Johnson singled out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both had a full package in their game<\/p>\n

Magic led the league in assists four times, which isn’t close to the all-time leader John Stockton’s nine, but back in the day, he was truly revolutionary, considering his size and the way he played the game.<\/p>\n

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There had never been a player with Magic’s frame who influenced the game so much purely through his basketball IQ and court vision. But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t score when it was required.<\/p>\n

Just remember his rookie season when, in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, he delivered a championship to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> by stepping in at the center position after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was injured. He dropped 42 points, grabbed 15 boards, and dished seven assists along with three steals.<\/p>\n

Although his career high was 46 points, he always played on teams with proven scorers where he wasn’t asked to be the primary scoring option, even though he showed multiple times that he could do it.<\/p>\n

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A similar case was with Jordan. After the Chicago Bulls asked him to take on playmaking duties, he\u00a0delivered with 10 triple-doubles in 11 games, proving he had a full package in his game and could also lock in on facilitating when needed.<\/p>\n

Related: “Kobe is too dangerous in his present state” – Phil Jackson on the reason Michael Jordan refused to practice in 1999<\/a><\/p>\n

The impact on the game was different<\/p>\n

That was one of the best all-around seasons in league history, as MJ finished the regular season playing 81 games with averages of 32.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 2.9 steals on 53.8 percent from the field.<\/p>\n

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On the other hand, Magic had the best season of his career in 1986-87, finishing with averages of 23.9 points, 12.2 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals on 52.2 percent from the field across 80 games.<\/p>\n

However, when Magic was asked<\/a> if he was competing with MJ for the greatest of all-time title, the Lakers legend knew the pecking order.<\/p>\n

“We haven’t seen anybody do the things that Michael could do,” said<\/a> Magic. “He was physically so gifted, at the same time, smart.”<\/p>\n

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Nonetheless, both legends could do absolutely everything on the court, as their skill sets were off the charts. But it was also an era where every player knew exactly what their position demanded. Michael terrorized opposing defenses with his scoring, while Magic’s impact on the game was completely different, but equally dominant.<\/p>\n

Related: “One of the greatest leaders I have ever played with” – Horace Grant recalls how Michael Jordan pushed the Bulls to finally find their identity<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Sep 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The general opinion of NBA fans and media is that Michael Jordan is the greatest shooting guard of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,150,2682,935,3825,6,5437],"class_list":{"0":"post-292843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","14":"tag-magic-johnson","15":"tag-michael-jordan","16":"tag-mj","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-wilt-chamberlain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115233431513011871","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}