Jordan Bell is a rookie for the Golden State Warriors, which is pretty impressive as it is. What’s more impressive, perhaps, is that he had to guard LeBron James in a pickup game and the young man lived to tell about it.
The Warriors guard was drafted out of Oregon this June and is a promising talent for Golden State, but he got a crash course in the NBA when Draymond Green teamed up with him in a pickup game at UCLA’s campus.
“We had an open gym in LA, at UCLA, and I was guarding him the whole time,” Bell told CSN Bay Area. “It’s different than what you see on TV. It’s waaaay different.”
Bell said he “played the best defense of my life” against James and had little to show for it.
“I thought I did a pretty good job on him, but he obviously hit some shots,” Bell said. “But he would get on the block, and I’m containing him, not letting him back me down, and he would fade away from the block to the 3-point line — and make it. And I just played the best defense of my life. It didn’t matter.”
“[Draymond Green] was on my team,” Bell said, “and he was just like, ‘Look, you can’t do nothing about that. Just worry about the next play.’
It sounds like a great way to get ready for the NBA, where James is of course at the top of the league when it comes to talent and ability. That’s one gym session Bell says he’ll remember for a long time.
“It’s crazy how big he is, how quick he is for his size and how smart he is,” Bell recalled. “He was standing straight up, and I’m thinking he can’t go by me if he’s standing straight up. I’m in a good defensive stance. He’s not crouching.
“But there he goes. I’m not going to say he got by me, but I didn’t realize he was so quick. For him to be standing straight up, there’s no way he should be able to move that fast.”
Welcome to the NBA, kid. It’s a lot different from ‘Guitar Hero.’
