Former NBA veteran Jim Johnson, who played in the NBA from 1992 to 2006, is one of the few NBA players who could claim they have played against both Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in their careers. Both Bryant and Jordan were famous for not just killing their opponents with their skill, but also their trash-talking on the court that got into their heads.
Johnson recently appeared in Paul George’s podcast and recalled his multiple encounters with Michael Jordan, where the two players ended up trash-talking each other on the court. In his first story, he recalled the time when he played for the Nets and they beat Michael Jordan’s Bulls in New Jersey. In the following faceoff, Jordan seems to have gotten his revenge.
“Sam Cassell and I were together in Jersey. Calipari’s our coach, his rookie year. We play him in Jersey and beat him. Sam had like 24, I got 25. We beat him. So we go to Chicago and play him. And we know we’re talking cash, right? We are because of what happened.”
“So at the time, it was a ref called– his name was Steve Javie. Okay. So I’m guarding Mike, right? And we would go at it. But I mean, come on. This is Mike, but I ain’t going, you know, we still got to play the game. So we’re playing, and Mike goes to his patented turnaround jump shot.”
“And as we’re running back down the court, on the left-hand side, he’s yelling at Steve like, ‘Man, why you ain’t called a foul?’ Right. Yeah. And I’m like, I f you. Steve was like, ‘Well, I thought you were going to blow by him.’ I said, ‘Blow by who?’ I said, ‘I can play D.’ Yeah. Right. And Mike said, ‘Man, you can’t guard me.’ I said, ‘Mike, you can’t guard me.’ Yeah. So, so we start going back and forth, back and forth.”
“End of the game, I ended with 33, right? Mike had 37. We lost. Yeah. So Joe Kleine, who played with us, who played uh who played, you played for the Bulls, we’re going through the for the handshake line and Joe went up to Mike and said, ‘Man, you leave my young fella alone.’ He said, ‘Man, JJ, my guy, but just tell him that’s why he’s wearing my shoes.’—I said ‘Tell him I ain’t taking him off either.’”
In the second story, he keeps the details brief about a preseason game against Jordan. Despite the games being basically irrelevant, Jordan turned on his competitive switch.
“The thing about Mike was this. He talked cash. Yeah. They say that. No, no, bro. The king of it. Cash. I was in Philly. We are in preseason, playing down in North Carolina at the Dean Dome. We’re going at it, talking. I said, ‘Man, stop complaining so much. You get every foul anyway.’ He said, ‘So, stop fouling me,'” said Jackson.
Jackson faced Jordan on multiple occasions across his career. They played against each other in 12 games and split their regular season record 6-6. Jackson averaged 15.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in those 12 games while Jordan averaged 24.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 5.0 assists.
While Jackson was not a perennial All-Star like Jordan at the time, he believed that he was still a menace to Jordan on the court. Do you think trash talk fuels players like Jordan and Jackson during the game? Or should it be looked down upon? Let us know what you think.
