Forget about the “Eastbay Funk Dunk,” Isaiah Rider has far more interesting stories to tell, like the one he dealt about him and Kevin Garnett’s run-in with Michael Jordan back in the mid-1990s – when Garnett was still a “young pup.”
Here’s the clip of Rider telling his Garnett/Jordan story (it comes after some fun Kobe vs. Jordan talk). But click here to watch his full in-studio visit with Go 95.3’s Mr. Peter Parker and D.J. Bonics.
“We were in Chicago. I had played against Mike three times head up,” said Rider. “KG had never seen me play against Mike. We’re in the game and I got about 24 going into the fourth quarter. Mike had about 18-19. I always stay quiet when I play him. I don’t talk too much … if he talked to me I was going to talk back but he never talked crazy to me – we just played. But I never talked crazy to him at all.
“We come out in the fourth quarter and KG was like, ‘Man, keep going at his ass. Serve him. He can’t guard you. He can’t mess with you.’ I was quiet. I’m looking at him like, ‘chill.’ Mike was literally right here. He’s like, ‘he can’t guard you. Keep going at him.’ I’m like, ‘chill.’ He’s like, ‘what?!'”
Apparently, KG was saying all of that while Jordan was “standing right here,” Rider continued.
“KG was like, ‘I don’t care. Keep going at him. You’re too strong for this dude, man. You’re too strong for him.’ Mike looked at KG, looked at me, looked at KG. I was like … ‘Mike, he don’t know the rules of the game he’s just a young pup.'”
Rider said Jordan scored about 17 in the fourth quarter while staring them down the rest of the game.
“KG didn’t understand that we don’t talk to Mike like that,” said Rider. “There’s certain rules out there.”
