Jordan Bell: “I just played the best defense of my life. It didn’t matter.”
A bunch of NBA players run pickup basketball during the offseason, and rookies are no different. In fact, Warriors rookie Jordan Bell recently ran some pickup and found himself matched up against who?
LeBron James.
I think we can all guess how that one panned out.
Here’s the 6’8, 225-pound Bell describing his first encounter with The King to CSN Bay Area’s Monte Poole:
“It’s crazy how big he is, how quick he is for his size and how smart he is,” Bell recalled. “He was standing straight up, and I’m thinking he can’t go by me if he’s standing straight up. I’m in a good defensive stance. He’s not crouching.
“But there he goes. I’m not going to say he got by me, but I didn’t realize he was so quick. For him to be standing straight up, there’s no way he should be able to move that fast.”
Now imagine that guy going around you with a basketball. Comedy.
Oh wait — here’s where it gets good:
“I thought I did a pretty good job on him, but he obviously hit some shots,” Bell said. “But he would get on the block, and I’m containing him, not letting him back me down, and he would fade away from the block to the 3-point line -- and make it. And I just played the best defense of my life. It didn’t matter.”
“[Draymond Green] was on my team,” Bell said, “and he was just like, ‘Look, you can’t do nothing about that. Just worry about the next play.’
LeBron’s called The King for many reasons, and his four MVPs in a five-year span is right up there with the rest of them. For crying out loud, the man brought a championship TO CLEVELAND. And Jordan Bell thought his defense was gonna stop him?
Welcome to the NBA, fam.