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"He was Michael's rock" - Bulls insider revealed MJ's favorite yet underrated teammate
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- "He was Michael's rock" - Bulls insider revealed MJ's favorite yet underrated teammate
Before Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant came along to help Michael Jordan , the Chicago Bulls had John Paxson . The Bulls recruited Paxson from the San Antonio Spurs as a backup point guard. Still, knowing Jerry Krause's brilliance as a talent evaluator, he already saw John's potential way ahead of time.
Krause was right. It didn't take long before Paxson meshed with Jordan on the court. In fact, longtime Bulls reporter and insider Sam Smith believed Pax was MJ's favorite teammate at the time.
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"John became Michael's probably favorite teammate to play with, I would say," Smith said in the Bulls' Ring of Honor tribute video for Paxson . "He was Michael's rock."
John could play with Michael
In just his second season with the Bulls , Paxson already proved that he could play with a player like Jordan. Then-Bulls head coach Doug Collins recognized that John had what it takes to effectively coexist with Mike on the court, something that not all players could do for obvious reasons.
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"That guy, man, he had fire," Collins said. "People always ask me, 'When you play with Michael Jordan, what do you better have?' I said, first of all, you better have tough skin. More importantly, you better have his trust. And John Paxson had both of those things."
Paxson played all 82 games and started 64 times in the 1986-87 season. It was Pax's best season as a player. He averaged a career-high 11.3 points and 5.7 assists per outing. Coach Doug knew all along that John had had it in him, and it was just a matter of time before he hit his stride with Michael.
"His work every day showed me who he was," Collins added of Pax. "John Paxson had a motor. He was highly conditioned. He had toughness, and he could shoot the [sic] out of the ball."
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Pax was underrated
Even though Paxson was playing well, Krause wasn't satisfied with how the Bulls were playing. He continued adding pieces around Jordan and brought in Pippen and Grant in 1987, and traded for Bill Cartwright a year later.
Since then, the Bulls developed organically. In 1991, Chicago finally reached the Finals and secured its first NBA championship in franchise history after defeating the Los Angeles Lakers .
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Jordan was unsurprisingly crowned as the Finals MVP, but for Pippen, it was Paxson who helped the Bulls seal the victory in that series. Scottie thinks John was an underrated player who is certainly deserving of praise and credit for his contributions to the Bulls dynasty .
"Being a player who relies on getting open and making shots, it was sort of his time," Pippen once said of Paxson's performance.
"John stepped up and played the role we knew he was capable of playing," he continued. "And he played it perfectly. It was a great moment for John because he was one of those forgotten soldiers on our team. He wasn't quite the point guard; he was sort of a shooting guard who didn't get a lot of shots that he should have gotten."
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All told, it's quite refreshing to discover that prior to forming a dynamic duo with Pippen, Jordan had Paxson as his most reliable and consistent teammate. That being said, it's only right that the Bulls honor Pax's legacy with the team.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Dec 11, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
