This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Former Utah Jazz shooting guard Bryon Russell had plenty of time to study greatness up close as a player on the Jazz Finals teams in 1997 and 1998.
Maybe too close after he was tasked to guard Michael Jordan on what Jazz fans remember as the "push off" and Chicago Bulls fans remember as Jordan's game-winning shot in Game 6 of the '98 Finals.
So, Russell has plenty of experience to draw from when deciding who to proclaim in the "best team of all-time" conversation — and he's certainly not picking the 2015/2016 Golden State Warriors.
Russell joined SiriusXM radio this weekend to say the Warriors couldn't beat Jordan's Bulls — let alone his, Karl Malone's and John Stockton's Jazz.
"Everybody is always comparing the Golden State Warriors to the Chicago Bulls, can they beat 'em? They couldn't beat the Bulls in any era. Matter of fact, they couldn't even beat the Utah Jazz team I played on in any era because we had this one big guy down in the post named Karl Malone. Who you going to put on him? Draymond (Green)? Andrew Bogut? Please don't say Festus Ezeli. Who's going to guard me, to be honest? I'll post up Klay (Thompson) or (Steph) Curry. And I pretty much consider myself having some good defense."
The Warriors fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games of the NBA Finals after securing an NBA-record 73 wins in the regular season.
Russell also knows — and hasn't forgotten — how it feels to fall short of a title like that.
"It had to take a push off to beat me."
Twitter: @BrennanJSmith