Michael Jordan is one of the biggest trash talkers in NBA history, always trying to get under his rivals’ skins to win the game even before it started. MJ really mastered that art after learning from Larry Bird, and it’s interesting to know that he kept using those tactics even after retiring from the game. His competitiveness hasn’t faded, and proof of that was his challenge to Magic Johnson during the top 75 ceremony in Cleveland during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game.
MJ was so used to teasing rivals that he’s allegedly responsible for starting a huge brawl between the two teams he played for in the NBA. Back in 2004, the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards clashed in a preseason game and starred in a controversial moment when Larry Hughes shoved Kirk Hinrich and things escalated quickly.
During a recent edition of Showtime’s Forgotten Seasons, Gilbert Arenas recalled this moment, accusing MJ of instigating the brawl with the words he told the Wizards players the night before the game:
“The night before our preseason game, we’re in Chicago, we hook up with Michael Jordan. We go hang out with MJ, we meet him at this lounge bar. He’s already roasted, he got a cigar, got his dream. He’s roasting the team, calling like, ‘man, you’re nothing but a bunch of s—, y’all are just a bunch of girls, y’all have no fight in you’. And he’s just going at Brendan Haywood, Kwame Brown, just talking just nothing but trash, right?”
“We’re playing against Chicago and we get into a little scuffle. Kirk Hinrich fouled either Larry Hughes or Juan Dixon very hard and Brendan Haywood decided to choke Kirk Hinrich, and all we can think is, Michael Jordan started this. If he didn’t tell Brendan he was soft…”
It’s not a secret that MJ always tried to get the best off his players, and even though he wasn’t part of the Wizards organization at that time, he had some things to get off his chest, especially against Haywood and Brown.
That brawl got really crazy and many players were suspended and fined after a situation that could have been easily avoided. Well, they surely blamed Jordan for instigating that situation, which ended in a huge fight.
