Charles Oakley On the Difference Of Playing with Michael Jordan and Against Him: “Once I Got Traded to New York, I Had to Do the Same Thing”

Michael Jordan and Charles Oakley have always shared a special relationship. They have been great friends ever since Charles Oakley got drafted into the Chicago Bulls. Charles Oakley was originally drafted to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1885. However, his drafting rights were transferred to the Chicago Bulls. That is where he started his NBA journey.

Michael Jordan was drafted in 1984 and had one year of experience when Oakley came into the league. Since this was Jordan’s second season, he was also just improving his jump shot and settling into the game.

Charles Oakley reveals how it was playing with Michael Jordan and playing against him. Charles Oakley is one of the few players who has done both. He played with the Bulls from 1985 to 1988. After that, he took his talents to New York Knicks where he stayed from 1988 to 1998. The Knicks and the Bulls had a huge rivalry going on in the 90s.

In an episode of “The Draymond Green Talk Show” Charles Oakley revealed how he was always tough on Jordan in practice. When both of them were on the Bulls, Oakley always pushed Jordan to be better. This drive to improve each other developed into a beautiful friendship.

As a Knicks player, Oakley gave no special treatment to Jordan. Oakley used his body to keep Jordan out of the paint. Oakley was the defensive anchor of the Knicks. Most of the defense depended on him. Oakley revealed how he never gave Jordan an easy time just because they were friends.

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Michael Jordan’s toughness and competitiveness

The Knicks and Bulls always had really intense and physical games. Oakley said that he used to play physically with Jordan during Bulls practice. “Once I got traded to New York, I had to do the same thing”, he continued to say, At that point, the league realized that the only way to stop Jordan is to be physical with him.

Michael Jordan never treated anyone differently on the court. Friend or no friend, Jordan’s competitiveness is what made him different from the others. His mentality was unique. It was so tough for other teams to stop him that they either had to physically foul him or had to come up with special rules to stop him.

This is exactly what the Detroit Pistons did long ago. They created a special set of ‘Jordan Rules’ to rough him up. Jordan was an athletic and efficient scorer and there was no challenge that he could not eventually overcome.

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