When Michael Jordan bullied a rookie wearing Jordans after a scuffle: “I should make you take my shoes off”
Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, has had some hilarious interactions messing around with his teammates and other players, depending on who is asked.
Some players weren't fond of the bullying from Jordan, while others knew it was his attempt to get under their skin. Chauncey Billups explained a situation where he witnessed Jordan bullying Greg Minor. Minor played for the Boston Celtics and couldn't guard Michael.
Chauncey explained what went down next:
“When I was a rookie, my very first game was playing against Michael Jordan and the Bulls.” Billups once remembered on ESPN. “We had Greg Minor guarding him. There is a little dust-up, Greg is playing hard, of course, you have to play hard as you can because it’s MJ, it’s opening night, and everybody’s watching.”
“They got into a little scuffle. MJ is going to the free-throw line, and he looks at Greg and says, ‘I should make you take my shoes off.’ I looked down, and I see he has Jordans on.”
This isn't the first time that Jordan has said things like that. We see him pretty frequently telling players that they aren't good enough to wear his shoes. For what it's worth, nearly every player that Michael has signed to his shoe brand is an elite-level talent.
Players have talked about Michael Jordan's bullying
One player who absolutely hated bullying from Michael was Scottie Pippen. Pippen and Jordan don't seem to have a good relationship anymore after "The Last Dance" because of what was said.
Fans and players believed that Jordan was trying to paint a picture when there wasn't one. Scottie, the one who was hurt the most, had the following to say:
"Michael was wrong. We didn't win six championships because he got on guys. We won in spite of his getting on guys. We won because we played team basketball, which hadn't been the case my first two seasons, when Doug Collins was our coach. That's what was special about playing for the Bulls: the camaraderie we established with one another, not that we felt blessed to be on the same team with the immortal Michael Jordan."
"I was a much better teammate than Michael ever was. Ask anyone who played with the two of us. I was always there with a pat on the back or an encouraging word, especially after he put someone down for one reason or another. I helped the others to believe in and stop doubting themselves."
Jordan didn't stop there. He has also been on the record to bully others, including his teammate Horace Grant:
“Dean Smith called me,” Krause recalled, “and ripped my rear end, literally. ‘How could you do that, you dumbbell?’ Literally. And Michael said, ‘What the hell? You took that dummy?!’ And for years that’s what he called Horace: Dummy. To his face. Dummy. Right to his face.”
While it's tough to tell if Michael Jordan was kidding or not, there's no denying the talent he had on the court.