After he won his first three-peat with the Chicago Bulls, every player that came into the NBA wanted to be like Michael Jordan. He had achieved the pinnacle of success on and off the basketball court, and as such, many stars dreamed of playing against him.
It wasn’t always the most pleasant experience though, Michael Jordan was ruthless in his prime. He also talked a lot of trash, and he was one of the best at it since he always backed it up too. Chauncey Billups, who was drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1997, once spoke about his experience playing against Michael Jordan as a rookie.
“My very first game playing against Michael Jordan and the Bulls,” Billups explained on ESPN. “We had a guy named Greg Minor guarding him. And, you know, there’s a little dust-up. Greg’s playing hard. Of course, you’ve got to play as hard as you can (because) it’s MJ.
“MJ is going to the free-throw line, and he looks at Greg. And he says, ‘I should make you take my shoes off,’” Billups continued. “I look down, I didn’t even realize it. I look down and (Minor’s) got the Jordans on.”
The Air Jordans were a wildly popular shoe in the 1990s, as they are today. The fact that his opponent was wearing his shoes and Michael Jordan used that to taunt him can only be described as a GOAT move. What’s more, Jordan dropped 30 points in that game against the Celtics too, although the Bulls did lose. Billups is one of the only players that can say they had a winning record against the GOAT.
Michael Jordan Similarly Destroyed A Young Kevin Garnett For Talking Trash To Him
Superstars, veterans, rookies, Michael Jordan didn’t care who he was facing, all he cared about was winning. And he would go off at just about anyone. The story of him talking trash to a young Kevin Garnett is equally legendary.
“One of my favorite MJ story is… Well, I’m playing right, but JR is having a good game. So as we come out the timeout, I was just like, ‘Yo keep killing that n***a’, you killing that n***a’.” So as I’m walking off, that n***a is right here, Mike can hear me.
“But I don’t really give a f**k, so I doubled down. ‘Yeah, keep killing that n***a yo, you killing that motherf**ker.’ So as I say that, I feel it. Hands on hips, legs locked, he just stared at me for like 15 seconds.”
“I can’t even really describe the next 6-7 minutes of play y’all. We down 25 now, it was just at 2. Mike had 18, he got like 40 now. I come to the joint, I was like, ‘JR, my bad man, I’m sorry. He said, ‘It’s cool, man, I told you to shut your a** up.’ Mike came down, ‘Okay, young fella, okay, okay, y’all done? Damn, young fella. Okay, okay.’”
If there is any player in the history of a game that can be described as being built differently, it’s Michael Jordan. The things he did in his prime were unmatched. He won six championships, six Finals MVPs, and five MVPs. That gives someone the right to talk unlimited amounts of trash.
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