Former Cavaliers Big Men Had To Hand It To Jordan

A young friend of mine, like pretty much every sports fan, is locked in on ESPN’s “The Last Dance.”

One of the (countless!) questions she had about Michael Jordan, the headliner of the drama, was regarding his hands.

“He holds the basketball like it’s a softball!” she marveled. “No wonder he was able to dunk on all those big guys.”

Her words reminded me of a conversation I happened to overhear while in the locker room of the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 1989 season at The Coliseum in Richfield.

The conversation was between Larry Nance and the late John “Hot Rod” Williams about, you guessed it, Jordan, with whom that era of Cavaliers had wars, both in the regular season and the playoffs.

“It’s not fair,” the 6-foot-11 Williams said. “He’s got hands bigger than mine and I’m taller much than he is and comes flying right at me.” Here’s Hot Rod extracting a big of revenge that followed the pregame conversation I referenced, played Jan. 5, 1989. Williams and his teammates prevailed in the game, 103-98, their 10th straight win to improve to 23-5 on the season.

The 6-10 Nance, first nodded then shook his head. He held up his right hand and spread his fingers wide.

“It’s like he’s holding a tennis ball,” he said of the 6-6 Jordan. “He comes at us without any fear because we can’t get the ball out of his hand.”

Here’s Nance challenging Jordan in the same game.

Nance then brought Julius Erving into the conversation. Nance, then playing with the Phoenix Suns, defeated “The Doctor” in the finals of the NBA’s first Slam Dunk championship in 1984 at Denver’s McNichols Arena after Erving missed his final attempt, opening the door for the then-third-year-forward of the Phoenix Suns.

“It’s like playing against Doc, only he’s a guard,” Nance said of Jordan. “He’s also like Doc ‘cuz he hunts you out to dunk on you.”

Here’s Nance and Phoenix teammate James Edwards being victimized by Erving at The Spectrum — which is dunk No. 4 in this video.

Also overhearing the conversation was Cavaliers backup center Wayne “Tree” Rollins.

“Welcome to my world, fellas!” the 7-foot-1 Rollins, three years the senior of Nance (who, like Nance, played collegiately at Clemson) and eight years older than Williams, said through a laugh.

Tree’s bark was no worse thank Jordan’s bite, as proven by this play Dec. 10, 1986 at the Omni in Atlanta while Rollins was a member of the Hawks.

I then pointed out to the three big men Wilt Chamberlain could palm a basketballs in each hand at the same time — using only his thumbs and middle fingers — and could palm a 16-pound bowling ball — in both hands.

“I don’t even want to think about what is must’ve been like playing against that guy!” Rollins cackled. “This guy is tough enough.”

“This guy,” of course, being Jordan.

The late Wilt Chamberlain could palm a basketball in each hand -- using only his thumbs and middle fingers.

Colton Jones is a regular contributor to SI/Amico Hoops.