Michael Jordan taking things personally might have sparked a memefest, but the man truly meant business when someone touched a nerve. And it didn’t necessarily have to be a player.
One such instance saw a fan heckling Jordan for dunking on John Stockton and yelling at the Chicago Bulls legend to pick on someone his own size, and he did just that.
Per Yahoo! Sports’ Joey Gulino, Jordan wasn’t about to be dictated what to do by a fan and what he did next makes one feel sorry for Mel Turpin, Utah Jazz’s backup big man.
“The details are somewhat nebulous, but they make all the difference. The story goes something like this:
Despite being an all-time great, Stockton only stands 6-foot-1, which is meager by NBA standards. A disgruntled Jazz supporter took this into account, yelling at Jordan to “pick on someone your own size,” or something along those lines.
Jordan obliged. And poor Mel Turpin, Utah’s backup center, suffered the consequences. Turpin stood 6-foot-11, almost a foot taller than Stockton. As he ran back down the floor, Jordan turned to the heckler and mouthed, “Was he big enough?”
Trust Jordan to be uber-competitive, and safe to say, it was that trait that made him one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, even if it means rubbing off people the wrong way and getting payback.
Michael Jordan Reveals His Leadership Mindset On ‘The Last Dance’
Losing was never an option for Michael Jordan when he took the hardwood. If that meant riding his teammates hard, then he would do just that. But in the end, it was worth it.
The final minutes of Episode 7 gave valuable insight into his leadership mindset and are one of the more emotionally charged moments in the Netflix series.
“When people see this, they gonna say, he wasn’t really a nice guy. he may have been a tyrant. Well, that’s you, because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well. Look, I don’t have to do this. I’m only doing it because it is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t wanna play that way…don’t play that way.”
Jordan has never been the one to back down from a challenge. He was widely regarded as one of the more mentally tough players to have taken the floor, further cementing his status as one of the greatest players of all time.
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