"He can make the basketball go wherever he wanted it to go" - Former NBA All-Star believes Michael Jordan doesn't get enough credit for his handles

Michael Jordan captured the imagination and fancy of basketball fans because of his incredible scoring brilliance and dazzling flights to the rim. MJ’s exploits spawned a generation of players who wanted to “be like Mike.”

Often lost in Jordan’s most famous trademarks is his ability to handle the ball. Stephon Marbury, on "The Ryen Russillo Podcast," highlighted one aspect in the game of “His Airness” that is seldom appreciated:

“The person who I looked at when I started basketball was Michael Jordan. I feel like Michael Jordan had every move that you could think of as a basketball player, for me, I think he got it.

“Jordan has so much flash in his handle that people don’t even realize cause he literally wasn’t really dribbling the basketball. He literally was palming the basketball as he was dribbling the basketball, so he can make the basketball go wherever he wanted it to go.”

In Jordan’s time, it was Isiah Thomas, Rod Strickland and several others who got recognition as virtuosos in dribbling. The Chicago Bulls legend, however, was no slouch. He had huge hands, which afforded him certain advantages over others, and had excellent hand-eye coordination.

During Jordan’s first nine years in the NBA, he terrorized defenses with unrelenting forays inside the paint. He averaged 32.3 PPG on 51.6% shooting from the field, aided partly by his ability to get to his spots with excellent ball handling.

MJ's dribbling wasn’t as flashy as that of Thomas, Strickland or Tim Hardaway. However, he was an excellent ball handler who had more glaring and electrifying skills. He got into any space on the floor and averaged only 2.4 turnovers in his career due in part to his superb dribbling.

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Michael Jordan combined footwork and ball-handling to dominate in the NBA

Michael Jordan's mastery of the fundamentals was part of the reason for his greatness.

The North Carolina superstar played for three years under legendary coach Dean Smith, who was known to be a stickler for basketball fundamentals. Jordan thrived under Smith due to his athleticism, innate basketball skills and mastery of the basics.

Part of the fundamental skill that people usually take for granted in Jordan’s game was his footwork. Over the years, players and coaches have raved about this part of MJ’s repertoire that hardly gets credit for his jaw-dropping run in the NBA.

Pairing impeccable footwork with understated ball handling, “His Airness” consistently kept opponents off balance. He only needed a sliver of an opportunity to pounce on before making a game-changing play.

Michael Jordan won the NBA’s scoring title on 10 occasions, including seven consecutive times from 1987 to 1993. The buckets and the aerial display got all the highlights, but the skills that led to those have been underrated.

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