Jerry Stackhouse didn’t walk into Washington expecting to play second fiddle. According to Kwame Brown, that’s exactly where the tension started once Michael Jordan arrived with the Wizards.
On “ The Basketball Show HQ,” Brown said Stackhouse made his feelings clear to Jordan about the pecking order.
“Stackhouse one day told Michael Jordan, ‘I didn’t come here to be your f-ing Scottie Pippen. ‘He thought that he was going to be the number one option and then MJ would be backing him up, but he found out very quickly that that wasn’t the case and MJ was the number one option and Stack had to get in where he fit in.”
That clash made sense from Stackhouse’s point of view. Before landing in Washington, he had just put together a huge stretch with the Detroit Pistons.
Over his final three seasons there, he averaged 25.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game while shooting 40.8% from the field. He also earned two All-Star nods and finished in the top-20 of MVP voting, so he had every reason to believe he belonged at the top of the offense.
But Jordan wasn’t there to hand over the keys. Brown said Jordan wanted to compete with proven players, and because Stackhouse had played at North Carolina, the trade with Detroit made sense to him. Even so, the arrangement created obvious friction between the two.
The on-court results weren’t pretty either. Stackhouse still led Washington in scoring in 2002-03, putting up 21.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game, but the Wizards finished 37-45 and missed the playoffs.
That season also turned out to be Jordan’s final one in the league. Stackhouse’s numbers didn’t rebound after Jordan left, either. With Gilbert Arenas and Larry Hughes taking on bigger roles, Stackhouse was down to 13.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in 26 games during the 2003-04 season.
Stackhouse later admitted that adjusting to Jordan’s sidekick role was difficult, but his path after Washington adds another layer to the story. After leaving the Wizards in 2004, he reshaped his game and found real success as a sixth man. What felt like a rough fit in Washington may have pushed him toward the role that ultimately suited him best.
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Now the question is less about whether the talent upgrade matters and more about how long the franchise can keep paying for it. Youngs deal already hangs over the roster as a major commitment, and Davis brings his own financial weight into a picture that was supposed to be about flexibility and growth. If Washington is trying to build around its youth while also paying veteran-star prices, the front office may have boxed itself into a timeline that is more expensive than sustainable. [Read more 🡒]