Five Views on Michael Jordan's Legacy

Sean Deveney - SportingNews.com

As Michael Jordan enters the Hall of Fame on Friday, people around the league give their take on what made No. 23 so great.

Joe Dumars, widely regarded as the toughest defender on Jordan:
He changed the way people see basketball. In my opinion, he is the best player who ever played the game. You can say the game was one thing up 'til the point he entered the league, and it was very different after him. He defined the way the game was going to be played from then on. He made it an above-the-rim game.

Dwyane Wade, who grew up watching Jordan in Chicago:
For me, it is amazing, to see someone you looked up to, who inspired you, to go into the Hall of Fame. There are so many memories, but to me, the thing that sticks out is when Michael became Michael, and that was the first championship. After that, he went from being a star basketball player to just being a star, being someone everyone around the world knew. And it seemed like, after he won that first one -- he got by the Pistons, he got by Magic Johnson and the Lakers -- it seemed like he never lost again.

Jerry Sloan, whose Jazz lost twice to Jordan and the Bulls in the NBA Finals:
What he did for basketball, the stuff he accomplished as a player puts him right at the very top. Not many people have been able to get to where he's been and what he's been able to do. I think what is more important is what he did for the game. On the floor, there was nothing you could do.

We doubled him one time, he found a player to make a shot. Another time, we guarded him one-on-one, he makes the shot to beat us. That's what great players do. You can talk all you want about philosophies in the world. Players like that break your philosophy. They make you have to change somewhere.

Reggie Miller, who shared a division with Jordan for nine seasons:
I can remember preparing to play the Bulls, and I would do the same thing for every guy I was supposed to be guarding. I would watch film, look at scouting reports and try to break down their games. No matter who I was playing against, all the best shooting guards of that era -- Mitch Richmond, Clyde Drexler, Joe Dumars -- there was some advantage I could find, some little thing they didn't do well that I could take advantage of.

With Michael, no matter how much film I watched, I couldn't find anything. He was strong, he could post you up. He could shoot over you from midrange. He could shoot from the outside. He could drive past you. He did everything. Not only did he do everything on the court, but look at what he did off the court. He was Elvis and Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali. The guy made it cool to be bald. A lot of people owe him for that.

Steve Kerr, Jordan's teammate for three championship seasons:
For a guy like me, playing with someone like Michael just makes your career. If you are a role player in this league, then being put next to a truly great player like Michael is all you can ask for, because he is going to find a way to take advantage of the role you can fill. I don't think anyone did that better than Michael, with his ability to take every aspect of his team and find a way to make it better.

Copyright 2012 by SportingNews.com