“Before Kobe came in… Ron Harper was that guy” – Stacey King says the early ’90s NBA players saw Ron Harper as the next Michael Jordan
“Before Kobe came in… Ron Harper was that guy” – Stacey King says the early ’90s NBA players saw Ron Harper as the next Michael Jordan originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Most remember Ron Harper as the unassuming point guard who played alongside Michael Jordan in the Chicago Bulls’ starting backcourt from 1995-1998. The 6’6″ guard was known for his defense more than his offense, and in five total seasons with the Bulls, he averaged a modest 7.9 points per game.
But before Harper was that version of himself, he was an explosive scorer who averaged under 20 points during his first eight seasons in the league, which was spent with the Cleveland Cavaliers and L.A. Clippers.
Former Bulls teammate Stacey King talked about that version of Harp on his “Gimme the Hot Sauce” podcast.
“My rookie year, he plays for the Cavs,” recalled Stacey. “He gives us 40 at the old stadium. You guys trade him out to the Clippers. We go on our West Coast trip, we played him out with the Clippers, he gives us 40. He gave us two 40s in two different uniforms within a two-week span, and that’s when I knew this guy is bad.”
Harper torched the Bulls
King was the Bulls’ 6th overall pick of the 1999 NBA Draft, so his rookie year would be the 1989-90 season. That year, Ron split his season between Cleveland and Los Angeles, and as King mentioned, they faced him wearing two different uniforms.
Harper scored 36 points on the Bulls as a member of the Cavaliers on November 3, 1989, on 14-27 shooting while also pulling down 10 rebounds and issuing 6 assists. Three weeks later, Ron donned a Clippers jersey when he played the Bulls again on November 26, 1989, and went on to score 36 once again on 16-25 shooting with 4 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals.
“Before Kobe came in, we were considering Kobe the closest thing to Michael Jordan, Ron Harper was that guy and I don’t think people really appreciate him, even when he’s here in Chicago. He lost a lot of his athleticism, but he had a high basketball IQ, which enabled him to play with the Bulls team,” added King.
Ron said he was a good defensive player
Harper averaged 20.1 points per game for the Clippers during the 1993-94 campaign. After that campaign, he left L.A. to sign with Chicago and became a completely different player. According to the five-time champ, it wasn’t hard to accept becoming a role player because he was playing behind MJ. He also said that he was already a good defensive player before going to the Bulls.
“Man, I was a good defensive player in high school,” Harper said in 1996, per the Los Angeles Times. “I was a defensive player in college. It’s just that when I came into this league in ’86 in Cleveland, my coach [Lenny Wilkens] told me to score and let Brad Daugherty worry about the defensive aspect of the game. Then, when I got to Los Angeles, out on the West Coast, nobody played defense, so I didn’t have to.”
Although his star lost its luster when he played in Chicago, Harper’s defense made him part of the Bulls’ second three-peat team. After the Windy City, he followed Bulls head coach Phil Jackson to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he helped Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant win two championships in 2000 and 2001 before retiring after winning his fifth championship ring.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 8, 2025, where it first appeared.
