Jerry Stackhouse spent two seasons with the Washington Wizards during the brief Michael Jordan era. A fellow North Carolina product, Stackhouse was afforded the opportunity of a lifetime to play alongside of his idol. Unfortunately, it wasn’t such a pleasant occurrence for Stackhouse.
In fact, he wishes he never played with the Wizards and specifically Jordan. Appearing on Adrian Wojnarowski’s “Woj Pod,” Stackhouse recounted his disappointing experience in Washington.
“Honestly, I wish I never played in Washington and for a number of reasons. I felt we were on our way in Detroit before I got traded there. It was really challenging to be able to be in a situation with an idol who at this particular point, I felt like I was a better player.
Stackhouse was traded to the Wizards after spending five seasons with the Detroit Pistons as part of a six-player deal. Doug Collins was the head coach, but according to Stackhouse it was Jordan who ran the team and that ultimately soured his enthusiasm for the team and his idol.
“Things were still being run through Michael Jordan,” Stackhouse said. “Doug Collins, I love Doug, but I think that was an opportunity for him to make up for some ill moments that they may have had back in Chicago. So, pretty much everything that Michael wanted to do [we did]. We got off to a pretty good start and he didn’t like the way the offense was running because it was running a little bit more through me. He wanted to get a little more isolations for him on the post, of course, so we had more isolations for him on the post. And it just kind of spiraled in a way that I didn’t enjoy that season at all. The kind of picture I had in my mind of Michael Jordan and the reverence I had for him, I lost a little bit of it during the course of that year.”
Richard Hamilton was the most notable player traded for Stackhouse in the deal. While, Stackhouse was struggling to fit in with Jordan, Hamilton was helping complete what Stackhouse felt he started — building the Pistons into a championship contender.
Hamilton replaced Stackhouse as Detroit’s leading scorer and helped guide them to an NBA championship in two years. Stackhouse said watching Hamilton and the Pistons win a tile “left a bad taste” in his mouth.
“[Jordan] had a young guard there in Rip Hamilton, who I was traded for to Detroit, that he didn’t feel like he could get it done with. So he was like, ‘Let’s go get Stackhouse, I know he’s tougher and he can score, let’s go bring him in here.
“Watching a team I helped kind of build a foundation for in Detroit go on to win a championship a couple years later, it left a bad taste in my mouth, so I was pretty happy to get out of Washington and get on to Dallas.”
Stackhouse led the Wizards in scoring in 2002-03 with 21.5 point per game. It was the final season he would average more than 14.9 points.
Meanwhile, Jordan retired for good following the season with the assumption he would resume his front office role with the Wizards. However, owner Abe Pollin fired Jordan after lackluster results during his time there.
In 2003-04 (the Pistons’ championship-winning season), Stackhouse was limited to 26 games following knee surgery and averaged 13.9 points before he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks during the off-season for Antawn Jamison.
Stackhouse spent five seasons with the Mavericks before he would bounce around the league on four teams in the final four seasons of his career.
