I voted "Not really, but still better than anyone else in history could." But really, that should be "Not really, but still better than anyone else in history not named Vernon Maxwell could."
I did a little research. Where is this allegation coming from? http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=maxweve01&p2=jordami01
No player is "guardable", since I'm interpretting "guard" as shutting them down. This is especially true for the elite players obviously. The defender can do his best but offense always has the advantage. If Kobe or Jordan are on their game, it doesn't matter who you put on them. In fact, a better defender will make them BETTER at their peak performances because players like them increase in skill with the tougher their competitors are.
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I guess a series can change the perception of player. Lebron has always been decent as a defensive player but all of a sudden he is the best defensive player since Pippen? LBJ did a great job on Rose, but Rose shot poorly the 2nd half of the season and even more miserably in the playoffs. LBJ basically dared Rose to take the outside shot.
Jordan acknowledged Joe Dumars and Vernon Maxwell as his top defenders. http://www.clutchfans.net/news/1549/rudy_t_reflects_on_rockets/ <iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O_sMOwMB-WE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Jordan is pushing 50.....so if LeBron, in his prime can't cover a man old enough to be his father then he should just retire.
Jordan would carve him up. Derrick Rose is a great athlete but not very intelligent. Re-watch how Lebron guarded him and it is obvious that a head-fake would have allowed Rose to get around Lebron and a shot-fake would have caused Lebron to foul him on every play. Rose choked so hard it was actually sad to witness. Now imagine Rose's quickness in 6'6" player who was stronger, a better mid-range shooter and who was also infinitely smarter and a cold-blooded assassin on the court. Meanwhile, Jordan would pick Lebron's pocket on the other side of the court. Don't underrated MJ's strength either. Lebron would have his hands full trying to post up Mike.
Revisionist homer history. Just like the legends on here about Ralph Sampson being God's gift to power forwards and Hakeem being light years ahead of David Robinson and Shaq on the court. Vernon got his reputation of "being able to guard Jordan" because he wouldn't back down from Jordan and jawed with him. While he was jawing with Jordan and cussing him out, Jordan was dropping everything but the roof on his head from 5, 10, 15, and 20 feet.
That part isn't revisionist history. It's just ignoring the majority of the games those two guys played and only looking at the six most important games they played against each other, games in which Hakeem outscored Robinson by more than 10 points per game and held Robinson to four games of sub-50% shooting (three games of sub-40% shooting).
