Terrell Owens is one of the best wide receivers to ever play in the NFL. But before he had a Hall of Fame career in pro football, Owens was a multi-sport athlete.
T.O. played college football and college basketball. However, because he was better at football, he pursued a career in the NFL. However, Terrell once said that he was good enough to make an NBA roster and even challenged Michael Jordan to a one-on-one game.
However, Jordan Brand athlete Derek Anderson witnessed MJ destroying T.O. in a trash-talking showdown.
"Terrell Owens told him 'Man, I think I can make it to the league.' And MJ said, 'You can't play for the Clippers. You're terrible.' So they started betting and trash-talking. And Terrell said, 'Well, let's go play one-on-one.' And MJ said, 'If you can beat my son, you can play me one-on-one.' He never played his son." narrated Anderson on The Truth Podcast .
Mike's sons played college ball
At 6'3" and 220 pounds, T.O. was a very athletic individual. He played college basketball for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He averaged 1.5 points and 1.3 rebounds in 38 games played for the Chattanooga Mocs.
Meanwhile, MJ had two sons - Jeffrey and Marcus . Both of them played college ball at UFC. Jeffrey was 6'1", while Marcus was 6'3". Jeffrey averaged 1.6 points and 1.2 assists in 107 total games played. Marcus played 94 career games and averaged 12.3 PPG, 2.9 RPG, and 2.7 APG during his collegiate career.
T.O. versus Jeffrey would have been interesting because Owens is the bigger guy. However, if the 6-time Pro Bowler faced Marcus, younger Jordan would have been too much for the NFL legend. MJ didn't say which son he wanted to play versus the Alabama native. Still, since the retired WR did respond to Mike's challenge, perhaps he knew he wouldn't even beat either of the Jordan brothers.
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Grover said MJ could still play in the NBA at 50
It's unclear when this incident happened. But in 2014, Owens made a video with the video streaming app HangWith challenging MJ to a one-on-one game while threatening to destroy the NBA's GOAT in the process. If this is the period when Anderson's story happened, then Mike was 51 at the time. If you ask Jordan's trainer Tim Grover , he said that Michael, at 50, was still better than many current NBA players.
"I absolutely believe Jordan playing again at 50 is obtainable," Grover said . "Of course, things have been diminished away from the game so long, but even with what's diminished by age, by not playing, I still think he's superior to a lot of the players out there now."
If a 50-year-old MJ could beat most NBA players, then a 51-year-old version of His Airness would do to a 40-year-old Owens. There's no question that T.O. can play, and he can hoop very well. But Jordan wasn't the GOAT for nothing. If Grover was being objective, then Air Jordan would've crushed the NFL Hall of Famer easily.
Related: The Lakers' team bus would always leave Kobe Bryant behind because he waited to talk to MJ after every game: "We were always one head short with Kobe"
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