It’s not a secret that Michael Jordan was and still is very competitive. His Airness earned a reputation around the NBA thanks to his attitude, always looking for the minimum detail to fuel his competitiveness, even making up stories.
When he felt disrespected, he took things personally, doing everything he could to destroy your confidence. Recently, Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated recalled one of the biggest stories about MJ’s mindset.
A former North Carolina player tried to taunt him acting like they didn’t know who Michael Jordan was before calling Hakeem Olajuwon the greatest player of all time. Imagine how bad this sit with MJ, who asked the team’s coach to give him his worst players to play against this man, Makhtar N’Diaye from Senegal, going off on him.
He won that round, but Michael would have another opportunity to complete his revenge a few years later, making sure that N’Diaye never forgot his name again.
“N’Diaye and Antawn Jamison were at the Super Bowl in Miami, trying to get into this hot club, and they couldn’t get in. They just didn’t care what celebrities you were unless you were on a super super super high level. So they are standing outside, trying to figure out a way to get in, and Michael Jordan comes out from a balcony and looks down. Makhtar sees him, ‘Mike, Mike, can you help us get in?’ Jordan looks down and goes, ‘oh, now you remember my name, Africa?'”
This is the most Michael Jordan story you’ll ever hear. He didn’t miss a chance to make people pay for their mistakes, and N’Diaye was one of those. Jordan won round one and two, getting two big acts of revenge on somebody who tried to bring him down.
Like this, there are many more stories about MJ and all the things he did both on and off the court.
