Retired and upset Michael Jordan WENT OFF on Charlotte’s starters leaving Stephen Jackson shocked

Jackson and his teammates were humbled by then 47-year old Michael Jordan in practice

Retired and upset Michael Jordan WENT OFF on Charlotte’s starters leaving Stephen Jackson shocked

Michael Jordan and Stephen Jackson watch on closely during a Charlotte Bobcats game

Make no mistake about it, Michael Jordan is arguably the most competitive basketball player to have ever played in the NBA. The 6-time NBA champion’s drive to work hard and succeed was second to none, which is why fans regard him to be the greatest of all time even today.

Jordan was known to be very tough on his teammates, especially during practice. Steve Kerr, current coach of the Golden State Warriors and one of Jordan’s former teammates said, “His theory was: If you can’t handle pressure from me, you’re not going to be able to handle the pressure of the NBA playoffs, and so he talked trash in practice. He went at guys, he challenged guys.”

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Jordan’s mentality was “to go out and win, at any cost.” While his demeanor in his practice may have irked his teammates but it helped them win championships.

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Jordan officially retired from the NBA in 2003 bringing down the curtain on a legendary career. He may have left the game, but the game never really left him, as in 2010, Jordan paid about $180 million and became a majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. In 2013, Jordan announced that he had submitted a request to the NBA to change the name of the team to the Charlotte Hornets which was eventually accepted.

Former NBA guard Stephen Jackson was a player on the Bobcats during Jordan’s era as owner. On a podcast recently, he recalled a time during the 2009-10 season when a pissed-off Jordan turned back the clock and went after him and his teammates during a practice session after a tough loss in their previous game.

Jordan kicked out one of the guards from the second team unit, played in his place and would go on to beat the starters in the game.

“We got our a** beat by somebody, and he came in the locker room after the game just going off on us, like, ‘We need to get our s*** together. I made some little comment or something like that. He ain’t say nothing, so he came into practice the next day. He’s going off”, said Jackson.

“He came out there, pushed whoever Gerald Wallace was guarding, the three-guard, kicked him out and got in that spot, played with the second team. He scored a couple points, and to the point where he talked so much s*** afterward, he grabbed the ball and went and dunked one on the way out. True story.”

Michael Jordan once out trash-talked Stephen Jackson

51 year old michael jordan destroyed stephen jackson in bobcats practice
Stephen Jackson joked that talking trash with Michael Jordan could have cost him his shoe deal

5 years ago on ‘The Jump’, ESPN, Jackson fondly remembered the days when Jordan was the owner of the then-Charlotte Bobcats and would frequently participate in scrimmages.

” Yeah I remember back then when I was with the Charlotte Bobcats, me and Mike played. Mike decided to come in and play pickup against us, obviously we were kinda sleeping on him cause he was in his early 50s but for some reason he still thought he was the Mike of old,” said Jackson.

“He really wasn’t dominant but he was talking all the trash in the world. I did trash talk back to him, one thing I said to MJ that I do remember was ‘That was the past, this is now’, I will bust your a**’, which was a mistake because if I didn’t know anything about all of Michael Jordan’s accomplishments, I knew that day.”

Jordan would go on to list out all his accolades and remind Jackson that he was on his team. “At that point, I felt that trash-talking was won by him, you right, I’m on your team, you do pay my cheque.” Jackson claimed that he destroyed Jordan’s team in practice but he lost the trash-talk battle. All-in-all it wasn’t a good career move as Jackson was traded a year later to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Jackson ate his humble pie and was reminded that challenging the GOAT is never a great idea.

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