Some believe that Michael Jordan's second NBA comeback was one too many. After having known him to be so dominant, some of his fans regretted his desire to put his shorts back on at the dawn of his 40th birthday, simply to prove that he still had his place in the league alongside the young Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter and Allen Iverson, who became his glorious successors.
The ultimate legend of the game, undefeated in six NBA finals, was thus somewhat tarnished, with repeated defeats, no playoffs, and a second year marked by injuries that became too difficult to bear.
And then there are the others, who perceived in this return all the passionate dimension that Michael Jordan could nourish for basketball. To them, Michael Jordan offered a technical demonstration that will have left its mark.
DeMar DeRozan was among those spectators who enjoyed every second of “MJ's” last dance, and who think those two years should be more recognized in the former Hornets owner's overall body of work. More than twenty years later, the evocation of that interlude still provokes great emotion for him.
Head before legs
At the time, the new Kings winger was just ten years old, and he remembers soaking up the incredible array of skills displayed by Michael Jordan, compensating for his athletic decline with a near-perfect technique on the half-court. The head had taken over the legs, and the result was a lesson for purists…
“If you sit down and watch Michael Jordan from his Wizards days, you’ll see how incredible he was, from the age of 38 to the age of 40. The way he scored, the way he created his own shot in the low post, from the wing, off one dribble, off two dribbles, the way he stopped and got up, the physicality he had in the low post, how he could create contact and still finish. He wasn’t as athletic as he was back then, but he could still finish and dominate his opponents.”, he recalled in the Podcast P with Paul George.
Words that echo a recent statement by Rasheed Wallace, who declared that this Wizards version of Michael Jordan is the best Michael Jordan in history. DeMar DeRozan is not far from being of the same opinion. Beyond these endless debates, it is above all the mastery of each gesture that has marked him.
“It was so incredible because it was such a mastery of an art, the way he made the game look simple, with jab-steps, with fakes. I watched every game Michael Jordan played at that time. If he’s doing that at that age, I had to be able to understand and learn from it. You didn’t see anybody doing that. Everybody wants to dribble, dribble, dribble, double-step back, that kind of thing. But it’s not about that. ‘No, let me simplify the game,’ kill them in those spots, with those angles, use my body on fadeaways, with my shoulder. That’s something I picked up from Mike on the Wizards, because he was incredible. If you watch, he was incredible, all with a bad knee.”he added. “If you watch Michael Jordan's games at the Wizards, he was really strong.”
A description that we find perfectly from the first minutes of this mix made two years ago by MaxaMillion 711, summarizing these two crazy years at the Wizards, with a few memorable hits along the way.
| DeMar DeRozan | Percentage | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Party | Int | Bp | Ct | Pts |
| 2009-10 | TOR | 77 | 22 | 49.8 | 25.0 | 76.3 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 8.6 |
| 2010-11 | TOR | 82 | 35 | 46.7 | 9.6 | 81.3 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 1.8 | 2.7 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 0.4 | 17.2 |
| 2011-12 | TOR | 63 | 35 | 42.2 | 26.1 | 81.0 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 2.0 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 16.7 |
| 2012-13 | TOR | 82 | 37 | 44.5 | 28.3 | 83.1 | 0.6 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 0.3 | 18.1 |
| 2013-14 | TOR | 79 | 38 | 42.9 | 30.5 | 82.4 | 0.7 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 2.5 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 0.4 | 22.7 |
| 2014-15 | TOR | 60 | 35 | 41.3 | 28.4 | 83.2 | 0.7 | 3.9 | 4.6 | 3.5 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 0.2 | 20.1 |
| 2015-16 | TOR | 78 | 36 | 44.6 | 33.8 | 85.0 | 0.8 | 3.7 | 4.5 | 4.0 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 0.3 | 23.5 |
| 2016-17 | TOR | 74 | 35 | 46.7 | 26.6 | 84.2 | 1.0 | 4.3 | 5.2 | 3.9 | 1.8 | 1.1 | 2.4 | 0.2 | 27.3 |
| 2017-18 | TOR | 80 | 34 | 45.6 | 31.0 | 82.5 | 0.7 | 3.2 | 3.9 | 5.2 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 0.3 | 23.0 |
| 2018-19 | SAN | 77 | 35 | 48.1 | 15.6 | 83.0 | 0.7 | 5.3 | 6.0 | 6.2 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 2.6 | 0.5 | 21.2 |
| 2019-20 | SAN | 68 | 34 | 53.1 | 25.7 | 84.5 | 0.7 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 5.6 | 2.7 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 0.3 | 22.1 |
| 2020-21 | SAN | 61 | 34 | 49.5 | 25.7 | 88.0 | 0.7 | 3.6 | 4.3 | 6.9 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 21.6 |
| 2021-22 | CHI | 76 | 36 | 50.4 | 35.2 | 87.7 | 0.7 | 4.4 | 5.2 | 4.9 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 2.4 | 0.3 | 27.9 |
| 2022-23 | CHI | 74 | 36 | 50.4 | 32.4 | 87.2 | 0.5 | 4.2 | 4.6 | 5.1 | 2.5 | 1.1 | 2.1 | 0.5 | 24.5 |
| 2023-24 | CHI | 79 | 38 | 48.0 | 33.3 | 85.3 | 0.5 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 5.3 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 24.0 |
| Total | 1110 | 35 | 46.9 | 29.6 | 84.1 | 0.7 | 3.7 | 4.4 | 4.1 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 21.3 | |
How to read the stats? GM = Games Played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Shots Made / Shots Attempted; 3pts = 3-pointers / 3-pointers Attempted; LF = Free Throws Made / Free Throws Attempted; Off = Offensive Rebound; Def = Defensive Rebound; Tot = Total Rebounds; Pd = Assists; Fte: Personal Fouls; Int = Steals; Bp = Loose Balls; Ct: Blocks; Pts = Points.
