Michael Jordan

BILL RUSSELL, Hall of Fame Player/Coach: Well, he, first, is a very physically talented young man, extremely bright, and has complete knowledge of the game and what it takes to win.

PHIL PONCE: There are other players who have those attributes. Does he bring something extra, speaking as a player from one player observing another player?

BILL RUSSELL: Well, then he has this-it's like a computer in his head that he knows all of his multiple skills, which ones he uses, and when to use them, to win the game, because you see the thing is what makes him a great player is his sense of priority, what is important.

PHIL PONCE: And how about the attitude that he brings to the game, Mr. Russell?

BILL RUSSELL: Well, that is what makes him great is his attitude. I think that after I've watched him play I guess hundreds of times since he was a kid, and the enthusiasm and the will to win has been there all the time, and what I like about him is that even today in the regular season games he shows up to play just like he played when he was in high school or in college, just as hard, with just as much dedication, and with just as much intensity.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. McCallum, how do you see it? How do you define what makes Michael Jordan distinct from the other great players that-other great players like Mr. Russell and people he's played with?

JACK McCALLUM, Sports Illustrated: Well, one of the things about Michael that Bill didn't have was that Michael has the ability as a guard to control the whole game. He can put the ball in his own hands when he wants to. Furthermore, the team has a total belief in what-in him and what they have to do. For the last 12 years in any clutch situation there was never a debate on the Chicago Bulls bench about whether we're going to throw it into the center or whether or not we're going to let Scotty Pippin shoot, we're going to give Michael Jordan clear out, let him have the shot, let him have the opportunity. More times than not Michael has been able to complete that opportunity, and that ability to seize the moment and the opportunity to seize the moment, I think, has set him apart.

One of the century's greatest sports figures?

PHIL PONCE: Mr. McCallum, some people speak of Michael Jordan in the same company as Babe Ruth and Mohammed Ali, as the century's great sports figures. Do you think those comparisons-do you agree with those comparisons?

JACK McCALLUM: Well, I'm sitting here with a man on camera who would be one of the ones challenged as the greatest basketball player of