Jeff Hornacek on what it was like guarding Michael Jordan throughout his career
Former NBA player and coach Jeff Hornacek and his daughter, Fox Nation host Abby Hornacek, team up for a new streaming special 'Guarding Jordan.'
For former NBA star and coach Jeff Hornacek, watching ESPN's 10-part Michael Jordan documentary is a bit more personal than it is for millions of fellow Americans glued to their TV screens.
Hornacek, who played from 1986 to 2000, was a shooting guard for the Utah Jazz when they went head-to-head with Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in back-to-back NBA Finals, in 1997 and 1998.
Jordan and the Chicago Bulls already had four championship titles. For Hornacek, it was the biggest series of his life and he guarded arguably the greatest player in NBA history.
"I think every basketball player, you want to play against the best," he said in Fox Nation's new show "Guarding Jordan." "Those guys — you don't realize how difficult when you're the star player, when every set defense is to stop you... and those guys still continually succeeded... great players, great times."
In the show, proud daughter and Fox Nation host Abby Hornacek watched the Jordan documentary with her dad and got his unique take on the series and the NBA great.
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On "Fox and Friends," Abby, who was 6-years-old in 1997, said that she has a new appreciation of this part of her dad's life.
"I don't think I really understood the magnitude and now watching 'The Last Dance,' and watching the 1997, 1998 NBA Finals back over again, I think that it's been so eye-opening to how the NBA used to be..." said Abby.
In "Guarding Jordan," Jeff, who went on to head coach for the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, said that there was "one big key" when guarding Jordan: 'Don't make him mad."
"What happens if you made him mad?" Abby asked in the Fox Nation show.
"He was the ultimate guy that loved the challenge. And I'm sure they'll show throughout this documentary how when he's challenged with something, as competitive as he is, he's just going to take it to the end," he said.
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Jeff also said that Jordan's skill alone was not enough to accomplish what he and the Bulls achieved, winning three back-to-back championships from 1991 to 1993 and then again from 1996 to 1998.
"You have to have something else, some other factor and, with Michael, it's a competitiveness, his ruthlessness," said Jeff.
"I would probably guess that there's never been a pickup game that he's lost because it didn't matter if it was practice or a game, he was playing it full out. He hated to lose. And I think those traits are what made him the super superstar that he was."
To watch all of "Guarding Jordan with Jeff and Abby Hornacek," – and to see what Abby found in her dad's collection from his playing days – go to Fox Nation and sign up today.
And to see more of Abby Hornacek on Fox Nation, check out "PARK'D," where Abby visits America's most treasured, national parks, and "Tales of Social Distancing," where Abby showed off some of her own impressive basketball skills.
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