The song is "Turn On" by RW Smith, which is free to download in the RU-vid Music Library. I do not own the copyright to any of the contents of this video.
Jordan didn't have a "modern" style crossover. His first step was so devastating that he didn't need one. By the time Allen Iverson, Grant Hill, etc brought the modern crossover to the NBA Jordan was already the G.O.A.T. - No need to fix what ain't broken.
Scott Freebass #beats You are so on point with that comment, Jordan didnt need gimmicks he was so explosive he didnt need to Dance around and wait for an opening, he just took your ass to the hoop and slammed on their asses or made some spectacular hanging in the air reverse layup. Nobody even comes close to the GOAT!!
Sterlin Jordan we are talking about the MODERN crossover. if you don't know the difference between Tim Hardaway's crossover moves and the MODERN crossover then you really don't know much about basketball. period.
I hear all the time MJ could go left or finish with the left but there are countless videos of him doing so. It just shows you people love to talk and don’t know what they’re talking about
Understand that too much dribbling will wear on you late in games. MJ stayed in attack and took a lot less dribbles to do it, knowing there was still big guys waiting even when he beat his initial man.
He had an excellent “Push Cross” Great move!! He had that first step too!! He punished everybody in every way possible in basketball!!! The For Real Greatest of All Time!!!👍🏼👍🏼
The best part about Jordan’s handles is that he didn’t have to do too much because he did whatever move was necessary, every move had a purpose and even with this MJ could pull off those crazy handles if he wanted to. That’s the best part about his handles
Jordan with a "modern" Iverson/Kobe style crossover literally would be cheat mode. Dude could literally blow past anyone at will WITHOUT setting them up with the dribble to get them off balance. Now you're going to let him dance around and get defenders off balance? Game over. Literally wouldn't be fair for the league.
jordanlover23 Modern crossovers are inferior to what you see in this video. All that dancing around is a waste of time and energy. MJ is all about efficiency.
This is better than the modern cross over, its all business and it maximizes his athleticism. Notice how on most of these he doesn’t need to settle for the open jumper, he can go all the way to the basket because he’s that far ahead of his defender.
That's what makes laugh at nick wright's "lebron's bigger, stronger, faster,"! lebron has 2' of height maybe 30lbs: 1) MJ's first step & ability to elude double & triple teams nullify any advantage there! Let's see lebron try & bull his way through the paint against the: 1) Mid 80's 76er's with Darryl Dawkins, Moses Malone, Dr J & Barkley waiting on him! 2) Late 80's Pistons with Rodman, Rick Mahorn, Laimbeer, & Edwards! 3) Patrick Ewing's Knicks with Oakley, McDaniel, Mason! Michael Jordan dominated the NBA when hard fouls came with the territory, the harder they came at him, the more he amazed us!
Thanks for this. What makes a truly great player. When they have a BAG but don’t ever have to pull from that bag because they’re simply better. Early Mike had a crazy bag in the 80s mind you but as he got older he perfected the simple things so he didn’t have to exert nearly as much energy.
When Mike did things he preserve his energy that shit what Kyrie does is a waste of energy it to much dripping and draws more people to him and it tighten the floor up and stead of spreading the floor. Mike made quick moves which breaks down defense quicker when Kyrie and today's superstar need more floor cause they doing to much dripping.
Jordan didn't need a ton of dribbling to execute because he was a MASTER. Just like a true samurai sword master doesn't need to twirl the sword all around and behind his back in order to cut you. Players went for all of Jordan's fakes because they knew he was efficient at EVERYTHING. lol!
back when euro stepping is a travel.. amazing how mj always made his way to the basket considering that there is no 3 secs defensive violation back then
I was more interested in seeing MJ attack the paint against 5 defenders. A lebron usually attacks via isolation play with brute force. Kobe and Iverson apply slick crossovers to get through.
J L well said , he did have the quickest first step . once he took that first step his defender was at his mercy and couldn't recover. It's like a track and field sprinter trailing in the race and trying to make up ground it hardly ever works. once your beat there is nothing u can do
I'm sure MJ could easily execute killer modern crossovers as referenced here. But things were different back then had the defender could put his hands on your body even as you crossed him over and started in the other direction. It's always about the conditions and removing the ability to touch the offensive player in the NBA is when the "modern crossover" started - this is not coincidence. The emergence of streetball handles in the NBA started right when MJ retired and defensive restrictions were added. Back then, streetball style play was looked down upon as ineffective in the NBA - everyone knew most courts in America had incredible ball handlers but unless they had strength and size, they couldn't cut it in the old NBA period. In MJ's era, with physicality allowed, no coaches would allow guards to roam and dribble constantly like today - that's asking for turnovers. So MJ being the extremely smart player he was, didn't try to go dribble crazy - and playing in the Triangle allowed him to dribble even less by playing off the ball constantly. Also, much of their offense was about him playing in the post and passing the ball to cutters or MJ using his footwork and post up moves to get buckets. The NBA back then was about smart, set offenses - not about guards creating on the perimeter dribbling constantly. But if MJ played in today's soft conditions and with these dribble happy offensive schemes, he'd be crossing over guys regularly, I guarantee you.
I always said this about mj. There was nothing fancy. It was pure speed and execution. He crossed you to beat you as fast as possible. He never danced around.
It's Johnny! i like those subtle crossovers. hard plant then push/explode. and he executed while running at the defender full speed. yeah he's the GOAT and it's not even close. He mastered every aspect of scoring.
Gmoney Mozart I agree. Mj didn't have the modern crossover like Ai or Ghill once had also bcoz their styles are prone to ball carrying by the refs at times. And sometimes during crucial plays, you're prone to fumbling which tends to turn d ball over. Mj were always fundamentally sound even on his xover moves. That's why you rarely see Mj fumble with the ball which makes him earned the trust of everyone when he holds d ball on last shots.
Look at these drives. The lane is jam packed with people and he is still finding ways to score. It's like everytime into the lane he has to solve a complex equation of hands, arms, moving bodies. It's simply amazing to watch. In Today's NBA once you beat your man its pretty much a walk to the basket. Jordan is literally going through entire teams on some of these plays.
Zero wasted movement. Foot work of a world class boxer. Excellent video. Theres a lot of great ballers but watching these old clips cements it for me, MJ the greatest ever and it isnt even close. Its like watching Kelley Slater surf...it just looks different. In my humble opinion, of course.
You're right. Nice comparison to Slater too "Zero wasted movement." I just typed the exact same thing on a comment above. It's striking actually how efficient and intentional every one of his movements is
Mj had physical gifts and insane athleticism that allowed him to play like that. Most elite nba players knees would tear, loose the ball, weren’t fast enough to simply run around a defender.
Crossovers and handles are for people that cant read their defenders stance insanely fast, lack the ability to fake out their defender less time and energy consuming faints, not fast enough, not explosive enough, lack the flexibility and jumping ability to beat the defender. If you’re bigger, faster, jump higher, instantly no where to go… cross overs and handles are complete wastes of time and moronic. Kyrie developed insane handles because he doesn’t have the jumping ability, is tiny, and isn’t fast enough to get around defenders/defense/get good looks without them. Mj was fast enough, tall enough, jumped high enough, had huge hands, could instantly read his defender…that cross overs were a waste of time. Plus his hands and were so big and he was so fast if you tried to steal the ball, he’d just palm it and blow by you. Lebron doesn’t have crazy handles, he doesn’t need them, many top players don’t because they don’t need them. Tatum has handles because he has a low vert and is slow for being a top player. Curry got them, because he was skinny and not explosive or a high jumper. Same with Chris Paul. Especially compared to rondo who has huge hands, long arms, freaky fast, high very for his size, and insane court vision. So handles/cross overs are really only beneficial if you need them to get space. Also mj grew up and played hs and college ball before the three point line was implemented, in addition in his jhs/hs/college/ early nba careers they were very strict about carrying and had a different definition for what a carry was, and during mj’s professional career zone defense was illegal, using weak side or hovering between offensive players on offense was illegal, basically only man to man was allowed, you could double or triple a person but that meant you had to leave the other offensive players open, defenders had time limits in the post, hand checking was allowed and flagrants weren’t a thing and ejections were really only used when a player basically assaulted an opponent and whoop them, so there was way more hard fouls but you couldn’t really touch an offensive player at all besides hand checking not when they’re shooting. So offend top players face zero resistance and got east open looks basically the majority of every game plus huge mismatches. They would get a hard foul, knocked to the ground but most the time is was pathetically east. So mj do to his physical gifts, fundamentals and ability to fake and read defenses along with how the game was played and the game rules….made handles/cross overs either illegal or not necessary. If mj played today he’d need some handles but he wouldn’t need to master them. He mainly would use them assisting to the open man while driving to hoop. So mj would have way more assists, less shot attempts per game, but higher fg percentage. Probably less back to basket post play and turn around fade always, more dunks, more layups, draw more fouls on opponents best player getting them to foul out regularly. He’d play point guard.
This was the kind of cross over liked to do back in my bball days. I've never been the type of guys who'd dribble like 10 times between the legs before doing something. I've always found that annoying. Nice vid.
To the Leflop fans this why Lebron is not even on same level .This guy's can score when he wants to specially when it's crunch time .When it's clutch time MJ turns in to beast mode while Leflop goes missing hoping his team mates will bail him out but it's ok his got a triple double 😂😂😂😂😂
Dr. Game Lebron can't touch the goat.What is his record in NBA Finals? l believe 3-5 and no comparison. magic was 5-4 but was hurt in 1989 Finals vs Detroit Pistons. the 1984 LA Lakers gift wrapped two costly games to Celtics that helped them win 1984 NBA champions. Kobe is 5-2 in NBA basketball Finals. mj is goat period. Case closed.
if finals are all that matters, then Bill Russel is the GOAT no doubt. MJ got 6 rings, so one for each finger on his right hand and one more for his left hand. Russel got one for each finger on each hand, and one more for his dick.
Stiller Nation if you knew about the Nba, you'd know that Bill played in a League lacking many teams so it was easy to win a lot of those championships. Nobody calls him the greatest though. That belongs to Air Jordan.
russell goat my ass. played in an era with 8 teams against a bunch of white midgets lmao his playoff stats are terrible, his FG% terrible as well. only caz he has 11 rings doesnt put him at all in that convo but ppl still like to bring that up but ignore all other background stories. same when ppl bring up horry, a role player who has 7 rings with diff teams, and ? da fuck cares?! irrelevent.
Dr. Game okay jordan is clutch but seriously? You gotta bring up your hate after "leflop" scored 2 buzzer beating game winners this post season? Mj is still the goat, but don't say it's not close.
MJ had massive hands, long arms, elite hand eye coordination, insane reaction time, and all time great acceleration and jumping ability. One over looked aspect of Jordan was elite flexibility and strength. These physical (gifts) attributes plus his ability to read his defender and understanding of the game of basketball…. Allowed him to not need more complex and difficult crossovers like the great permitter scorers of the last two decades. Jordan’s physical gifts made it so he didn’t need to get his defender out of rhythm, timing or bite a faint or hesitation move. Jordan was so quick and had such great reaction time, that the millisecond he saw you move….he knew where to go and go the opposite way your stance and weight were going. He had such huge hands, no one was going to steal the ball and he had such flexibility and leaping ability he was ten plus feet past his defender with two dribbles elevating to shoot. Players today are amazing but they don’t have the freaky elite genetic athletism to do what Jordan did. AI is the closest in terms of athleticism and possibly pound per pound more athletic but he was still too small to do what Jordan did so he needed to use cross overs and dribbling moves to get the separation he needed to shoot. AI was so athletic that he didn’t need Steph’s or kyrie’s ball handling skills to score in fact it would slow him down. Dwade who was bigger than AI but smaller than Jordan but close to their athleticism was another guard that could just go down hill without crossing you up
Jordan is so good because he could hit any shot anywhere on the floor. anytime at any angle,off balance fade away pull up jump shot his skill set was just dynamic. And if you crowded his jumper he could go around you or jump damn near over you. He was the perfect basketball player!
Micheal Jordan had awesome 1 st step.he was so excited, explosive when he was going to the hoop trust me.you're not gonna stop him,not even King Kong, Godzilla will stand in his way.
@@cjtrouble A-10 is a tank killer, vehicle destroyer, enemy ground troop annihilator, infratry support, low and slow flying jet with triple redundancy and giant Gattling cannon and heavily armored that was designed and built decades long ago. It’s old, effective, reliant, durable. I do not think that describes Jordan at all. I think prime Gary Payton, prime rondo, Ginobili, Jason Kidd on the mavs, Ron artest on the lakers, Jay will on maimi, jj on the mavs, Bosh on the heat, maybe prime bibby on the kings fits the A-10 durable, reliable, feared by opponents, not fancy, not the best, but great support and makes their team feel better and murks opponents. Especially jj. He was unstoppable on the mavs.
It hit me when I watched the video how intentional MJ's dribbling was. There was no showboating, everything had a purpose. It also shows his amazing skill in using his dribble to get himself great shots. The most basic fundamental in basketball, MJ knew how to use to perfection.
Bro huge hands, long arms, insane speed, insane hand eye corporation and reaction time, insane jumping ability. His dribble is efficient because if physically dribbled it more it would slow him down and his huge hands and long arms made it so he could run full speed without fear of loosing the ball
Jordan used the more exaggerated crossover to gain space to make jumpers...if he wanted to get to the rim he just gave one quick jab step and exploded past the defender. Efficient scorer...
Jordan’s Crossover was ILL and simple because he will beat you with timing and speed then after that he’s taking you to flight school lol 😂 I’m glad I was a witness during this era of real NBA basketball 🏀
Always moving downhill. Kept the ball close to his body. Fundamental GOD. These same mechanics allowed him to wreck defenders a decade younger than him at end of his career.
MJ's gane is the best definition of basketball. His crossover was very effective & efficient. No too much dribbling, no fancy moves, no energy wasted, no showoff, just pure basketball at its best.
one thing i notice about MJ that ive never seen since. whenever he got the ball he already knew where he was gonna go.. no hesitation.. which threw alot of players off...
Exactly. And he used no wasted motion to get there. And because he could jump equally well off one foot or two he didn't have to specially angle his body or do an extra "plant" to jump. There's actually objective, quantifiable reasons why Jordan is THE BEST basketball player. But yeah, great comments both of you.
@@iggyblitz8739 yeah it's cool you notice that about Bird. Larry Bird is the one other player whose highlights I never get tired of watching. Larry is a LOCK for my all time starting 5 Back court: Magic, Michael Front court: Bird, Russell, Wilt
I watched this video and when it comes down to it the player that nowadays has a crossover that resembles Jordan's is probably Derrick Rose. I mean he doesn't use it as much nowadays but Derrick also just does a quick L-R or R-L hand switch like he utilises his strength, speed, and athleticism the same way Jordan did. It's truly a shame that the acl injuries came tho as a basketball fan that may probably always be my biggest disappointment
joann dortch I don't know why you had the need to bring that up. I was just saying that a player who uses the crossover Jordan used with success is Derrick. I'm not here to say whether anybody stole it or reused it I'm just saying this simple yet effective crossover is only really used to catastrophically affect a defense by the player I named.
I was just telling these dudes at my job that Jordan never had to cross ppl over n this video proves that... His first step was to good he's basically just switching hands n still going to the basketball
there will never be the same bastketball player as exciting to watch like MJ. not in the next 20-30 years. why 20-30 years? cause im hoping to see one again.
Can you imagine if MJ came up in the Kobe Iverson era with the quintessential carry crossover that every young player relied on as their bread and butter?? Jordan did it without that... just think about that. Can you imagine if he came in with that??? They would've had to cancel the league it would have been so unfair
Not partially. 08-09 Wade was the closest thing to 91-93 MJ. Different styles. Wade had a great crossover and he used it in combination with other moves unlike the others like Kobe, Iverson when you knew they were setting up the cross. Wade'crossovers are more organi just like MJs.
Efficient. Like a leopard. No wasted movement. Just quick, efficient angles in his rim strikes. 2:35 In convinced that this trait, more than any other of MJ's attributes, is what _categorically_ separates him from other players. Great video.
This is without less back-to-back games, load management, diet plans, quick surgeries, analytics , advanced workouts, and medicine we have today. I even left out no hand-checking and rules instilled to make the game flow better for offensive players. Imagine Jordan in this era.
He’s not even showing the full arsenal of “head fakes, shoulder shimmy, fake crossover, hesitation/stutter steps!” Before executing a “basic fundamentally sound” crossover!
His step was so quick he never needed to cross over like a Kyrie or even Kobe. And when he did, it put defenders on the floor and won championships (I'm thinking of Bryan Russel). Mikes game was truly unstoppable.
markalious tell me about it. If you really look closely many of MJ's moves are just change direction style dribbles to get to the hoop. Back then that was the objective. Today, dribbling for the cameras and ultimately not knowing how to get to the basket or score the ball is commonplace.
If I have extraordinary first step, why bother myself by squeezing out second or more crossovers unnecessarily. I will kill you as simple as possible. Deliberate eye-catching move is also a style but not MJ's. His moves were all about explosiveness, elegance and efficiency.
MJs crossover is just as crazy to watch even compared to some of the best handlers in the nba today. Some might agree some might not. For me it’s the speed that comes after the crossover when he drives to the basket there’s nothing you can do because he’s so fast. To speed is just as impressive as watching a player with insane handles that can go any which way. I’m sure if MJ wanted to he could have danced a lot more. It’s clear where Allen iverson got the cross over he used on MJ, look At 4:51 and you’ll see. I bet mike was mad IA got him with his own move! 😂
His crossover wasn't the flashiest but dam sure effective. Wasn't until later in his career he developed a street ball style crossover. But in general he was more straight to the point, blow by you..
Many of these are just MJ's change direction dribbles. And then you go leaving out MJ's more identifiable and wicked crossovers, i.e. MJ crossover of Shandon Anderson and dunk on Ostertag in 1998 - how the hell do you leave that out?
