Michael Jordan once punched Will Perdue in practice for setting an illegal pick
Michael Jordan is infamous for being aggressive towards his teammates during his NBA career. It was a way for him to motivate the team to achieve success. Jordan even punched Will Perdue in practice for setting an illegal pick, as told by Horace Grant.
In an appearance on Hot 97 radio in New York in 2015, Grant confirmed that Jordan once punched Perdue in practice. The incident was in "The Jordan Rules" book released in 1991, but was never confirmed back then.
"I hate to tell the story, but Will and I are still good friends," Grant said. "Typical Phil (Jackson), we run this play and Will set an illegal pick on MJ. And MJ said, 'Will, don't do that again.' 'Whatcha talking about?' that's Will. MJ says, 'Alright.'
"Phil says run it again. So naturally we run it two more times, illegal pick. MJ walks up to Will, boom. Lit him up. It was over. We grabbed Will. You're not going to hurt MJ. MJ can take care of himself. The next day on the plane, Will gets on with this huge shiner."
The incident was discussed in "The Last Dance" documentary. Will Perdue also confirmed to CBS Sports that Michael Jordan punched him in the face during practice. Perdue explained that fighting between teammates was pretty common back then and that his incident with MJ was the only one that leaked.
"He did, and I wasn't the only one," Perdue said. "That's how competitive our practices were. That wasn't the only fight, that was one of numerous. But because it involved Michael Jordan, and it leaked out, that it became a big deal.
"And the funny thing was, in that practice that it happened, we basically separated, regrouped and kept practicing. It wasn't like that was the end of practice. Stuff like that was common, because that's how competitive our practices were."
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Michael Jordan also punched Steve Kerr in the face
Will Perdue was not the only teammate to get punched by Michael Jordan. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr also suffered the same fate during training camp before the start of the 1995-96 season. Jordan and Kerr were talking trash in practice when things got heated.
However, Kerr credited the incident for strengthening his relationship with Jordan. "His Airness" began trusting his teammates, which resulted in Kerr's most iconic moment. In the dying seconds of Game 6 of the 1997 NBA Finals, Jordan passed him the ball to hit the game-winning jump shot.
"I would say it definitely helped our relationship, and that probably sound really weird," Kerr told Ernie Johnson in an interview. "I wouldn't recommend that to anybody at home. I think that it has to be understood in the context of intense competition."
“I feel like I passed the test and he trusted me more afterwards.”
@SteveKerr discusses how a practice altercation with MJ helped grow their relationship on #NBATogether https://t.co/yUwghEt513
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