[Highlight] Michael Jordan shocks and amazes the NBA with a wrap around dribble
He was briefly arrested for this in Detroit in 1989.
was that a joke? I am genuinely asking. and if it was true, why was he arrested?
Ya he served a few years in the MLB for it
Ah, so it wasn’t the gambling
Nope, witchcraft
David Stern suspending him so as to not expose the wizarding world
And he later played for the Wizards. Coincidence? I think not.
I hope your days to come are filled with an abundance of maple syrup.
No it’s the absolute truth. It fell under the “Ball Too Hard Act of 1989” the same year they passed the “How The Fuck Do You Not Realize That’s A Joke Act” which is still statutory law so I’d stay out of Detroit if I were you.
Yes it’s been on the books for many years:
Detroit Municipal Code § 18-420 — Prohibition on Wrap-Around Dribbles
(a) No individual shall knowingly or intentionally execute a wrap-around dribble while participating in the game of basketball upon any public or private basketball court located within the corporate limits of the City of Detroit.
(b) For the purposes of this section, a “wrap-around dribble” means any maneuver in which the basketball is intentionally dribbled around the posterior or lateral aspect of the player’s body in an effort to evade a defender.
© A first violation shall result in a written warning. A second or subsequent violation may result in a civil fine not to exceed $75 and temporary removal from the court at the discretion of the supervising recreation official. (d) This section shall not apply to instructional demonstrations conducted by licensed basketball coaches or City-approved youth clinics.
tbf wrap to the same hand is pretty rare.
Rare because it’s not optimal
this was before analytics, no one knew what was optimal
MJ was the 7th best player on his own team
His VORP/36 was on par with that of Rudy Gay
NOOO NOT THIS GUY
NOOOOO
“fecking Roodee Gey man” In Toronto mans accent
Thank god there wasn’t poly market or kalshi back then with Jordan. He wouldn’t gotten into even more trouble
He wasn’t even the best drummer
We knew it was optimal to be able to go left. MJ went right anyway.
The funny thing about that little Gen Z outburst was that the pistons entire gameplan was to force him left or middle, before he ever won 1 championship lol. I think he figured it out.
feel like you see players just opt for the self-nutmeg to keep the dribble in the same hand nowadays
Self nutmeg into the midrange is the Chris Paul special
This was way before Dr Mike
MJ would been traded for a pick swap if he was alive today
Neither is the shamgod. But it looks cool
You’re tripping bro shamgod can absolutely be a lethal move against overly aggressive defenders or if you have quickness and the defender needs to respect your ability to blow by
Wemby made Gobert look silly with a Shammgod as a rookie
https://youtu.be/JRnHLH2-0LU
I mean a shamgod is flashy but it’s still a feint that can work. Wrapping around to the same hand does nothing lol
What? No…
when you’ve Michael Jordan’s right hand perhaps it is
This is an excellent point.
Mainly situational and really only optimal in the fast break. Moving attempting to split two defenders they are staggered slightly especially if the first reaches for the ball
It is if you can palm the ball like you’re a gekko, which is kind of why it was optimal for him, situationally.,
In this case, there’s a defender to MJ’s left that does not swipe for the ball… but, if jordan went left, could have. It was optimal in this case, so he did it.
Yea i think some people here are not even seeing what happened and their brain is tricking them to seeing a basic behind the back from right to left hand. This is actually pretty cool
For me it’s how it’s not even close to a carry. Players get a lot of leeway nowadays, but his hand is pretty much on top of the ball the entire way.
That was the rule back then. Magic looked stiff as gell dribbling but its because he had to follow the rules while being a massive human being
Gel is notoriously the opposite of stiff, but overall I agree with what you are saying.
XD leaving it for the funny
His hands are massive
Jaylen Brown dribble package
There are plenty of one-armed bandits in local rec centers pulling this off semi-successfully
If you’re moving in that direction it’s actually not that hard to do.
looks like nobody seems to understand that
Foul. No… two fouls
C’mon, Father Pat! That’s a clean dribble!
Corndogs Jackie.
“You said S my C!”
You’re going to need a phone to heaven!
Maybe she didnt go to heaven
Oh no. Oooohhhh no
“It appears a line has been crossed by Father Pat of all people.”
That’s it.
And here’s Luka doing it while going through a traffic jam https://streamable.com/wtpz7y
Disgusting!!!
I thought Luka was on the Mavs?
Boy have I got some news for you
Wait till he finds out they no longer have Paul George. Poor guy..
It’s an absolute joy watching Luka hoop. Easily one of the most talented players I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.
It’s a shame he won’t be on a competitive team for who knows how long
As much as I’d love to make a joke about him being on a “competitive tanking team” for years to come I doubt Lakers lose that many games if he’s available for most of them.
They’ll definitely win games in the regular season and finish top 4 but once the playoffs come them matchups with young teams that have an 8 deep player rotation and swarming defense come along they’ll collapse.
I’ll never count out a healthy Luka, he’s cold blooded in the playoffs.
If you make it to the playoffs you are on a competitive team, thats how I’ve always seen it. Since pretty much half the league wont make it
For me it’s a team that can take it to the finals, it’s going to be hard with okc and spurs. Regular season was easy just look at March they only barely lost a game but to okc
So there are only 2 competitive teams per season for you?
Didnt know he played with Rui and Ayton
Of course against the Rockets… I regret clicking
And then the no look to freeze the D for the lob. Unbelievable
i made a sound when he did that
Rajon Rondo did this in a college game and the refs glitched. It took about 3 seconds and then they called it a violation. I’m pretty sure they didn’t understand and assumed it had to be illegal. He was so slick with it.
Rondo is probably the craftiest guard that probably won’t be remembered as much as some other names from that era. He needed the Big 3 in Boston but they don’t win a ring without him. He was one of my favorite players to watch and would put up insane numbers while never really being a good shooter.
One of the best playmakers of all time id say
Suns traded Rondo for cash considerations and a pick later.
Ed Cota did it a few times at UNC. Also did great fake behind the backs.
Man… Ed Cota was so awesome in college. He’s the one that made those UNC teams exciting. He was one of the best lob throwers I’ve ever seen at the college level.
He had a great reverse through the legs too, like he was faking a behind the back pass. His long wingspan made his handles so pretty
Jackie Moon and the Alley-Oop level silly. Im all for it
That’s it?
Grew up watching Jordan, am a Jordan goat. This is a good example of why a massive grain of salt is sometimes needed though when “remembering” 80s/90s ball and even Jordan at times.
My take is that Jordan is the GOAT but he’s not the best to ever play basketball when you factor in athletic, ruleset, and strategic advancements.
It doesn’t take away from MJ, because if he developed in the modern era I’m sure he’d have the same or similar case to be the GOAT. But expecting him to “average 40 in today’s league” even with adjustment is a bit far fetched.
This is a weird argument. Nobody averages 40 in today’s league anyway. Why would he need to do that to be the best?
I think it’s just a thing that people often say.
Personally my take is that it would come down to whether he needed to average that much. Probably not.
But for a guy who was averaging 30 during a very low-scoring era, without taking many 3s? I definitely think that he could in today’s game.
That’s what I always say. Jordan did stuff that CANT be replicated like bringing basketball to the world and making it popular at a time when it was still looked at as an American Sport. Basketball has progressed a TON and I think Lebron is a probably the best basketball player ever, but Jordan is always gonna be the GOAT.
That’s still an insane move and the dude melted the minds of the announcers doing it.
Jordan is kinda like Steph Curry in that he just did shit that changed the fundamental ways basketball is played and consumed.
Jordan was last guy to absolutely remake the league prior to Steph in that basketball was not played the same before and after.
LeBron and Kobe can’t ever really claim either.
This is my ass talking but I feel like LeBron didn’t remake the game so much as he completely upped the pace. The man was probably the most athletic player to ever grace the NBA as a rookie and watching old clips it feels like everyone is playing in slow motion except for him. Nowadays we take it for granted but the fast paced basketball we see today with everyone essentially running up and down the floor at top speed the whole game with constant cuts and offball movement started, at least to me, with LeBron
I think LeBron is the complete final form for the version of the NBA that Michael forked.
But like, he and Kobe grew up on Michael Jordan and you can feel that DNA in the play. You can see their reverence for it in that they wear MJs number or MJ+1. You can feel it in the league around them.
And then Steph forked the NBA such that it’s meaningfully different now in a way that feels like the shift in the 90s.
Yeah this is a good way of looking at it. Wemby is like the final form of Steph’s NBA, and now I think we’re going to go back to something in the middle. The Cooper Flaggs, AJ Dybansta’s etc
I almost brought Wemby into it for exactly that reason.
He’s like a Titan that can shoot from deep.
No big like that needed that in their skillset until Steph but Wemby growing up was like…wait… I need a 3-point game because he was still growing up during Steph’s run-up.
How you forgetting about Shaq? Guys were getting contracts just in the hopes of standing in front of him, rules were changed because his play warped the norm so much. I love Kobe and LeBron’s play, but for modern times it was MJ to Shaq to Steph.
You are correct.
This is the 80s bro.
The game hadn’t evolved as much yet…. Like someone like Jamal Murray has like 30 layups that are more impressive than Jordan’s switch hand layup in the finals
Different game back then
I love watching old movies (30s-50s) and my friends used to tell me that it’s stupid to watch them because everything that they do has been done “better” in newer movies. Whether the claim is true or not, it’s fun to watch the original.
It is!
I started getting into older movies recently - one of which was Seven Samurai.
Not only does it originate a lot of stuff, it’s still god damned entertaining in 2026, even if you don’t love foreign / black and white / period films.
Imagine what those directors could do with modern filmmaking production tools.
Same for NBA - imagine Larry Bird with modern training / health / nutrition. You thought he was a menace BEFORE?
Greatness is greatness.
Watching the first blade runner it seems cliche but that’s just because every part of it has been copied by something that came after
The amount of times I’ve had to explain this is why everyone thinks The Beatles and Michael Jackson made generic music. Yeah, because everyone copies them lol.
My ex thinks the beatles suck. She also doesn’t care about history at all.
like wut
For those who didn’t live it it’s hard to explain just how much of a global icon Michael Jackson was, the man had a level of fame that was so far beyond anybody else.
Check out Yojimbo if you liked seven samurai. That’s my favorite of the “trilogy “
This is my favorite also. Ran is also pretty great, and it’s one that has been copied from quite a bit.
Seven Samurai is GOATed. Akira Kurosawa was incredible.
Check out Citizen Kane, invented half the techniques still used in cinema today.
I especially hate when ppl say shit like, I Love Lucy is just filled with tropes. Like, she invented them!
on the flipside for people who don’t like new things: “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore.” Well yeah, they didn’t make ‘em like this back then either, just this one time! haha
Also, as far as music goes, they’re just not looking for good new stuff. There’s great music across all eras
absolutely. Now I am kind of old and do think the most popular music is more bland now than it’s ever been. But as a whole music is as good as it’s ever been
Old movies are awesome and I’m doing the same. I got a debrid service so now i just look anything up and watch it
And they are slower, it’s so relaxing. More story driven, the dialogue seems actually thought out
I watched Public Enemy recently, i jotted down the old movies tony soprano watches while eating ice cream on the couch lol
Old movies are also pretty wild. I watched High Plains Drifter the other night and Eastwood straight kills 3 people and rapes a women in the first 15 minutes! Like ok I guess? LOL!
I used to get into heated arguments with one of my friends in college because he said The Incredibles is objectively a better movie than The Wizard of Oz. Looking back I think he was just teasing me, but it always succeeded in getting me worked up.
They’re wrong because there’s no such thing as “objectively better” in art
He knows that, which is why I’m pretty sure he was just giving me a hard time
Both good movies tbh. I’d actually lean closer to your friend’s opinion, but I think saying, “objectively” takes it too far.
The original 12 Angry Men is one of my favorite movies. I haven’t seen many movies that can take a concept that would typically be viewed as so incredibly boring and elevate it to such a degree like that film did.
Others achieved going super saiyan, but only after Goku did it first.
There’s no way pistol Pete did t do this. His bag was crazy ahead of his time.
Was gonna say this was 100% a pistol pete move and not a Jordan one. Pete invented like, by this point at least 50-60% of all the dribble moves people use today.
If he did it the way MJ did it here, then it probably would’ve been called a carry with how they officiated dribbling back in the 70’s
And now it’s like a super saiyan bargain sale.
2018 bron woulda had them in seizures
Everybody would just get called for a carry back then, dribbling is obviously better now than it was then but they were way stricter with policing the stuff we just gloss over now.
Your hand couldn’t be on the side of the ball back then, it was a carry if it was. Go try and do all your dribble moves with your hand on top of the ball. I have a modest handle, but I can do all the behind the back, crossover, in and out stuff if I’m allowed to carry. Its so much harder if you can’t.
Watch the NBA and watch their hands. See how often its on the side of the ball. Jordan couldn’t do that or it’d be called.
I’ve never seen LeBron do a wrap around dribble with the same hand
Yeah but he did a wrap around dribble while nutmegging his teammate https://youtu.be/lHzclTp0-ZY?si=YhIWrhSgtd_2DgYE
I remember going insane at my cousin’s house watching this live
They would’ve had a witch trial
Bron isn’t more crafty than magic was
Imagine Kyrie
Kyrie would’ve been called for a travel 100% of the time trying to do then what he does now.
Not travelling, but palming especially.
Yeah I guess technically its palming/carrying but its been 25 years since its been called so forgive me for getting it wrong.
I think you are both right lol. Prime kyrie foot movement is on another level.
Behind the back through Thompson’s legs to the and one at the rim cause the apocalypse.
This MJ highlight is my favorite, it’s not done often and if so Kawhi is probably the only player in the league who can do it. Wemby too I guess, but he doesn’t count
I had to replay that like 3 times to comprehend what I was watching
because there were like 15 pixels total?
One handed football catches are sick. One handed basketball catches? Disgusting.
lmao this is filthy
Like catching a grapefruit for him
Pfft I do that all time. It’s with a mini ball and against my 7 year old, but still.
He got insanely high on that play too
Bob Cousy was doing this shit in the 50s idk why the announcers are glazing lol
Same with Pistol Pete just a decade ago.
Pistol Pete was balling like this in 2016??????
If you listen to the audio, they were talking about the fact that he went to the same band, not the opposite one. That’s pretty unusual.
Bill Gates is trash for only creating Windows 95 and not pornhub.
shammgod would’ve sent people to the hospital
Kyrie would have been burnt at the stake for witchcraft
Executed on the spot
Pistol Pete was already doing this in college in the 60s
Pistol Pete would do this and then probably no-look nutmeg the nearest defender for a teammate to lay it in or take the return pass for a 22-foot 2.
Pistol Pete was shooting 30ft 2-pointers.
This is the modern day equivalent to Westbrook started his triple double streak
makes me wonder how milkmen reacted to the first tween dribble
I love how he loses his play-by-play announcer voice and just becomes an excited basketball fan for a moment.
“Jordan wrap-around dribble… (mind melts)… I can’t explain what he just did.”
Kyrie would put these guys in a coma
To be fair, Kyrie watched MJ.
Marovich was filthy
Man was really playing against plumbers
Imagine prime Kyrie traveling back in time to hoop in the 80s. Shit would look like The Salem witch trials outside of the lockerroom after the game
the handle was nasty for that era, straight up embarrassing defenders
Wait until they see the Kyrie Career highlights
I don’t like Kyrie but he would be shot for the shit he does if he played then
Or called for a travel more likely
Sorry, isn’t that just a behind the back dribble? I feel dumb, like I’m missing something.
Watch his hands. He does it with only one while not carrying. Difficult isn’t even the word.
Edit: why the downvotes? a regular behind the back dribble is with two hands in this he does the whole motion with only his right hand.
Yeah that was dirty. Funny thing about Michael he had no intention of doing it.
They were cavemen back then 😂. Imagine dropping lebron or kyrie in the 80s….they would prolly explode
We take for granted how much the sport has evolved.
That was pretty impressive
I guess Magic did it right to left behind the back not right to right.
Almost an unintentional shammgod
That’s Johnny Red Kerr’s and Neil Funk’s voices!
This was witchcraft back in the day. This is why you shouldn’t compare eras. I can do this shit and I’m ass
the exact reason. the game evolves (even tho they were hella glazing)
MJ was probably credited with a steal for that around the 4 second mark
Got nothin on my reach around dribble
what’s the date of this game, does anybody know?
JJ Reddick never said a lie.
MJ has no left, confirmed
😂😂😂😂
Plumbers
wrap around dribble sounds like it should take longer than a second
This is kinda adorable
Mark Price still trying to find his shoes
Forgive my ignorance, but isn’t this just a simple behind the back dribble that most amateur basketball players can do? Secondly wasn’t Pistol Pete doing this kind of thing much earlier?
Shhh you’re using too much logic
Wow what a legend he must be the goat because of that
Nevermind now I understand the narrative “If Jordan did that old heads would have…”
something something played with plumbers
this why we done with the 90s bro
Cousey was doing that in the late 50s
I’m an old head and I semi remember this play and it really wasn’t that big of a deal. I dunno why the announcer was so blown away by this tbh. Seems more like hyperbole.
Pretty cool especially for the time, but it’s a good way to point out that this is what people mean when the skill in other eras doesn’t compare to today. Yes there have been outliers even further in the past like Pistol Pete could easily do this too, but skills training wasn’t a normal part of practice. Nowadays, drill work and skill training is more sophisticated and kids are doing sophisticated ball handling skills that were not a part of training in the past.
Bah Gawd! #25 has a family!….
MJ had no left