The Jordan Rules were instructions developed in the late 80s to curb Michael Jordan’s scoring dominance.
Michael Jordan was too dominant in the late 80s.
He led the NBA in points in multiple years consecutively (averaged 34.5 points per game on 52 percent shooting from 1987-90) and there needed to be something to curb his scoring.
Hence, the Jordan Rules.
It was just a set of rules created by the Detroit Pistons’ head coach, Chuck Daly, to slow down and prevent Jordan from scoring at certain spots on the court. And if some bruising happened while doing so, then it happened.
According to Isiah Thomas, the Pistons’ star point guard, the rules were simple.
He told the All the Smoke podcast hosts that Jordan wasn’t a skilled ball handler and couldn’t go left. So, on defense, the Pistons always forced him to go left:
“Jordan was a reluctant passer. He didn’t like to pass,” Thomas said. “He was the first volume shooter. He wasn’t like a…now you see kids that got great handles and all that, he didn’t -he didn’t have great handles. Couldn’t go left, and if he went left more than two-three times, he had to pick it up.
“So, the rules were very simple – left side of the floor, send him left. Right side of the floor, send him left. In the middle, send him left. Now, when he’s going left, we wanted the trap to be visible. So, I’m going left, and the first person that he sees now, is running at him.
“And you, as a defender, your job is to take away his right hand because now, as a passer, we want that ball going in the air. And if the ball goes in the air, we’re quick enough to rotate and get back and match up.
“So, as that defender leaves to come trap off the baseline or from the top, second defender, your job is to rotate to cover. Now, we want that pass going in the air across court. Jordan didn’t want to pass, so what would he do? He would shoot. And guess what he would do? He would miss.”
But that’s only one of the rules.
In The Last Enforcer by Charles Oakley, he said that there was also a rule to prevent Jordan from scoring on drives.
He quoted Daly, saying:
“The other rule was, any time he went by you, you had to nail him,” Daly said. “If he was coming off a screen, nail him. We didn’t want to be dirty -I know some people thought we were- but we had to make contact and be very physical.”
Additionally, in the third episode of the “The Last Dance” documentary, then-Pistons’ assistant coach Brendan Malone elaborated on this rule, saying that there would be a couple of bruisers waiting for Jordan underneath the basket.
“[Bill] Laimbeer and [Rick] Mahorn would go up and knock him to the ground.”
By implementing these rules, the Pistons were able to defeat the Bulls in 1989 and 1990 and advance to the NBA Finals, where they won back-to-back titles against the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trailblazers, respectively.
However, even though the Jordan Rules helped the Pistons win rings in those two seasons, it was a bad thing for every other team for the next decade.
After the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals loss, Jordan knew he had to make some changes to prevent himself from getting batted and abused.
He started strength training -something he was reluctant to do because he thought it would affect his shot.
But it was something that he needed to add to his regimen so that he can fight through and deal with his opponents’ physicality.
And once he got stronger, he took over the NBA and won 6 championship titles in the span of 8 years.
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