Chicago Bulls: 5 NBA legends that had Michael Jordan’s number
4. Robert Parish, Boston Celtics/Charlotte Hornets
Record: 22-20 regular season, 3-7 playoffs
Another former Celtic great that benefited greatly from the demise of Jordan and the Bulls throughout the 1980’s was 7-foot-1 and 230 pound center Robert Parish. The nine-time NBA All-Star selection, two-time All-NBA honoree, four-time champ, and eventual Hall-of-Fame inductee saw Jordan and the Bulls on more than 50 occasions between the regular season and the playoffs.
Jordan actually got the best of Parish in the end, largely thanks to his run with the Charlotte Hornets at the end of his two-decade long career. But Parish still managed to average 13.0 points per game, 9.6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.5 steals, and 1.1 blocks, while shooting 54.8 percent from the field and 75.2 percent from the charity stripe in those 42 regular season meetings.
All in all, Parish would come out on top with seven wins and just three losses to Jordan and the Bulls in the playoffs. But Jordan would get the slight edge in the regular season, by just a two-game mark. But Jordan was usually the higher scoring of these two former NBA superstars. The 28 highest scoring individual games when these two met were all Jordan.
The most points that Parish ever scored against Jordan in the regular season was 27 points. There were 28 outings where Jordan would score at least 29 points against Parish’s teams just in the regular season alone. And there were four occasions where Jordan would score at least 42 points in just 10 playoff meetings with Parish.