Former NBA star Robert Horry has revealed that there's one player Michael Jordan did not look forward to playing back in the day.

The seven-time champion won two of his rings with the Houston Rockets, playing alongside the legendary Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon, whom he says Jordan was actually afraid of playing.

Jordan, revered as the greatest NBA player of all time, is also known for having the most ruthless mentality in the history of the game. However, according to Horry, that hardly mattered when he went up against an Olajuwon-led Rockets side.

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"If you ask Michael Jordan what one guy he ever feared, it was Hakeem Olajuwon," the former forward said during an interview at the Basketball Hall of Fame's Center Court last month. "He used to say 'I'm scared of the big African'."

Horry also claimed that the Rockets would have still won their two championships had Jordan not retired for two years because the Chicago Bulls wouldn't have been able to contain Olajuwon, while shooting guard Vernon Maxwell would have been able to slow MJ down.

The 48-year-old, who also won titles with the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers, has voiced that sentiment before.

“But I truly believe the way that we were playing and that big dominant force, Hakeem Olajuwon, that we had down there was too much," he said on the Scoop B Radio podcast in August.

“I played for Phil [Jackson] and he doesn’t like to double team and you had to double Hakeem [Olajuwon] or he would have had 50 on you. So I think we would have won. It would have been a good game. … I know everybody thinks that Michael Jordan is the greatest to ever play the game, but Dream [Olajuwon] isn’t too shabby.

“Dream [Olajuwon] must go against who they had at center and Mike [Jordan] would have had to go against Vernon Maxwell, who is a good defender,” Horry said. “So I think in that sense, we would have had the edge.”

 

What This Means

Jordan will probably never admit it, but it's not hard to believe that he felt intimidated by Hakeem. The former center was one of the most deadly players of his generation and h's advice is still sought by professional players in today's game.

The likes of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have both worked out with him, among other stars, and there's no denying his Rockets would have given Jordan's Bulls a run for their money in the finals if they'd met these two years.

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