By R.L. Bynum<\/p>\n
The father of the man who will try to lead the new era of Carolina men\u2019s basketball into greatness was the architect of a plan to stop the greatest player in program history.<\/p>\n
Michael Malone\u2019s father, Brendan Malone, spent almost 30 seasons coaching in the NBA. As a Detroit Pistons assistant coach under Chuck Daly from 1988 to 1995, he helped devise one of basketball\u2019s most famous defensive schemes.<\/p>\n
The Jordan Rules was the name of the blueprint that helped Detroit limit Michael Jordan\u2019s production and overcome the Chicago Bulls on their way to back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and 1990.<\/p>\n
The idea was born out of frustration. In April 1988, after Jordan scored 59 points on the Pistons, Daly decided enough was enough.<\/p>\n
As Daly later told Sports Illustrated\u2019s Jack McCallum<\/a>, \u201cwe made up our minds right then and there that Michael Jordan was not going to beat us by himself again.\u201d<\/p>\n Brendan Malone, brought onto Daly\u2019s staff that year and known for his defensive mind, worked with Daly to build a system specifically engineered around one player, an approach almost unheard of in the league at the time.<\/p>\n Malone laid out the mechanics of the plan years later, in an interview featured on Episode 3 of the ESPN documentary \u201cThe Last Dance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Subscribe to read Tar Heel Tribune ad-free<\/p>\n Subscribe for a cleaner, smoother reading experience without the flashing banners, slow-loading elements, or those especially annoying pop\u2011up ads that interrupt the flow of the story. You\u2019ll also get the first version of each story emailed to you. The only ads you\u2019ll see are static, non-intrusive ads for UNC\u2011related books, and there are none currently on the site.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the wings, we are going to push him to the elbow, and we\u2019re not going to let him drive to the baseline,\u201d Malone told filmmakers at 30:33 of the episode, which is in the above video. \u201cNo. 2, when he\u2019s on top, we\u2019re going to influence him to his left. When he got the ball in the low post, we were going to trap him from the top.\u201d<\/p>\n It sounded almost academic, funneling Jordan into predictable spots on the floor. But there was a fourth component that gave the Jordan Rules their real teeth, and Malone didn\u2019t shy away from describing it.<\/p>\n Asked what happened when Jordan broke through to the baseline anyway, Malone said, \u201cThat\u2019s when [Bill] Laimbeer and [Rick] Mahorn would go up and knock him to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n The players who executed the plan were even more blunt about its intent. Dennis Rodman, the Pistons\u2019 relentless forward and later a Jordan teammate on the Bulls, described the fourth rule in stark terms:<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cChuck Daly said this is the Jordan Rule: Every time he go to the f-ing basket, put him on the ground. When he goes to the basket, he ain\u2019t gonna dunk. We\u2019re gonna hit you, and you\u2019re gonna be on the ground. We were trying to physically hurt Michael.\u201d<\/p>\n Teammate John Salley put the logic behind that physicality even more simply, telling filmmakers, \u201cYou have to stop him before he takes flight because you know he\u2019s not human.\u201d<\/p>\n Jordan never forgot it.<\/p>\n Reflecting on those years in \u201cThe Last Dance,\u201d he made clear the Pistons\u2019 approach left a lasting mark.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I hated them. And the hate carries to this day. They made it personal. They physically beat the shit out of us,\u201d Jordan told Newsweek<\/a>. The strategy worked well enough, for long enough, that Jordan reportedly added roughly 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason specifically to withstand it, a detail ESPN highlighted in the documentary.<\/p>\n Detroit eliminated Chicago in the Eastern Conference finals in 1988 and 1990, but Chicago won the rematch in 1991 on the way to the first of Jordan\u2019s six championships. The Jordan Rules were one of the most physically punishing defensive game plans in NBA history.<\/p>\n Brendan Malone died in October 2023 at the age of 81. He and his son remain the only father-son duo to have each won an NBA championship as coaches, Michael Malone having led the Denver Nuggets to the 2023 title.<\/p>\n When Denver raised its championship banner that October, just days after his father\u2019s death, Michael Malone spoke about how present his dad still felt.<\/p>\n