Whenever people talk about someone who they feel is an NBA legend, they often compare him to Michael Jordan, the man who took the league by storm when he was picked by the Chicago Bulls as their third overall pick during the Draft of 1984.
His will to outdo his opponent, regardless of who it is something that not only let him stay on top of his game for nearly a decade and a half and led him to winning six championship rings, and five NBA Most Valuable Player awards.
But the fans of “His Airness” and his ability to destroy his competition with just his words even before he’d dribble the ball. Here are five times, Michael Jordan took his trash-talking to a whole new level:
1. “You F*cking Midget”
Tyrone Mugsy Bogues at 5 ft 3 inches was the shortest player to ever play in the NBA. In a league of giants where your height plays a crucial role, Bogues managed to stick around for 14 years. Respect... Right?
Well, not in the eyes of Michael Jordan. In the First Round of the 1995 Playoffs, the Charlotte Hornets were trying to save themselves from elimination. During the last seconds of the game, Mugsy had the ball with the Hornets down by one.
Jordan backed off of him and challenged him: “Shoot it you f*cking midget.”
When Bogues shot the ball and bricked it.
A year later Mugsy actually confessed to his teammates that that single play ruined his entire career and his shot never recovered.
2. “I Got Him”
Who doesn’t remember the ‘92 Dream Team. Brought together for the Barcelona Olympics, the Dream Team had names like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and of course Michael Jordan on it. No international team came even close to beating them at the quadrennial tournament.
What’s relatively unknown is that a collection of young college stars with the likes of Chris Webber and Grant Hill managed to upset this magnanimous roster in a closed practice scrimmage.
In the rematch the following day, Jordan was assigned a future 2 Time All Star, Allan Houston and boy, was he up for the challenge.
“I got him,” said the future Hall of Famer and as the legend goes, Houston didn’t touch the ball for two straight hours. The Dream Team annihilated the college kids, with a reality check smacking them right in the face.
3. “Pick On Someone Your Own Size”
On December 2nd, 1997, the Bulls visited the Utah Jazz and Jordan, mundanely scored 47 points. Nothing extraordinary.
However, the major highlight of the game occurred when Jordan dunked on the Jazz point guard, John Stockton.
Moments after the 6’1’’ guard got beat, the then Jazz team owner, Larry Miller yelled at MJ from the front row: “Pick on someone your own size!”
The next possession, Jordan obliged. He dunked on 7 footer Mel Turpin, who was almost a foot taller than Stockton and asked Miller if he was big enough for him as he ran up the floor.
4. “Here’s What I Am Gonna Do”
On the day when Michael Jordan scored his career high 69 points against the Cavs, Craig Ehlo was to guard Jordan. Evidently, Ehlo failed miserably, and to add insult to injury, MJ talked trash the whole way through.
In Ehlo’s own words, Jordan said: “I’m hitting everything, so I’m gonna tell you what I’m gonna do this time and see if you can stop it. You know you can’t stop it. You know you can’t stop this. You can’t guard me.”
This is how Jordan described his move just moments before he went to work on Ehlo: “I’m gonna catch it on the left elbow, and then I’m gonna drive to the left to the baseline, and then I’m gonna pull up and shoot my fadeaway.”
Surely enough, Number 23 did exactly that and did a good old shoulder shrug.
“I told you,” he said.
5. “You’ve Always Been A Loser”
When asked by Sports Illustrated, a former teammate of Michael Jordan said that Jordan was the most viciously competitive player he had ever seen. He practically ruined one of his own teammates in Bulls’ reserve forwards in Rodney McCray’s career during a practice session.
The two players were on opposite teams in a scrimmage and Jordan, while in McCray’s face was constantly screaming: “You’re a loser! You’ve always been a loser!”
The trash talk got Rodney and got him bad. He could hardly put up a jumper after that incident and while the Bulls ended up winning a title that year, McCray managed to averaged 15.9 minutes per game with minimal support to the team.
It was also the last season he ever played.
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