A behind-the-scenes story from filmmaker Peter Gilbert recently resurfaced, offering a hilarious glimpse into the competitive mindset of Michael Jordan and how trash talk from Alonzo Mourning quickly backfired during a game in the early 1990s.
Gilbert, known for his work on the iconic basketball documentary Hoop Dreams, recalled the moment while discussing a scene filmed during a Chicago Bulls game for the 1994 thriller Blink, directed by Michael Apted and starring Madeleine Stowe.
The production was filmed inside the old Chicago Stadium during an actual Bulls game. In the movie scene, Stowe’s character plays a blind woman whose friend describes how incredible Jordan is while watching him play. Gilbert was stationed underneath the basket with a large camera to capture close-up footage of Jordan during warmups and the game.
“I worked with a director named Michael Apted, who was a really great filmmaker. He was doing a film in Chicago, and I was in a scene. It’s called Blink, and it was with Madeline Stowe.”
“There’s a scene at the old Chicago Stadium. The scene is basically a blind woman and her best friend. Her best friend is describing to the blind woman how great Michael Jordan is as a player during the game.”
“I’m underneath the basket, and I’ve got a huge camera with me, you know, not the normal camera. Jordan is there warming up. Jordan comes over to me, and he goes, ‘So what’s the deal?’”
“And I go, ‘You know, you’re in a movie. We’re making a movie.’ He goes, ‘Oh, am I getting paid?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ He said, ‘Do you know how much?’ I said, ‘I heard 30 grand.’ And he goes, ‘Oh. What do they want me to do?’ And I said, ‘Dunk,’ because basically they just really wanted a couple dunks.”
“So right before the game started, he walked over to me, and he said, ‘Just stay under the rim for the first three shots.’ And he just came down, and he was like, I’m not kidding, that whole game underneath the basket he would shout to me what he was going to do.”
“And Alonzo Mourning started talking trash to him. The trash was hilarious. It was the old Charlotte Hornets days, you know, Larry Johnson in his Grandmama days. You can imagine the banter and all that stuff.”
“But Mourning really started talking trash to him. So he was inbounding the ball under the basket, and he turned to me, and he’s on camera. He turned to me, and he goes, ‘I’m going to throw the ball into Pippen,’ and he’s screaming it so that Mourning hears it.”
“‘And Pippen’s going to throw it back to me, and I’m going to dunk on that motherf***er.’Sure enough, that was the play, and that’s the shot in the movie.”
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What happened next became one of the more entertaining behind-the-scenes moments tied to an NBA game. Throughout the night, Jordan repeatedly ran past Gilbert under the basket and told him exactly what he was about to do on the next play.
The game itself featured the Bulls facing the Charlotte Hornets during the era when Mourning and Larry Johnson were leading the team. At one point, Mourning began talking trash to Jordan during the game. According to Gilbert, the exchange quickly escalated into classic Jordan competitiveness.
While standing near the baseline inbounding the ball, Jordan turned directly toward Gilbert and shouted loudly enough for Mourning to hear. What made the moment legendary was that Jordan then went out and executed the exact play he had just described.
Scottie Pippen received the inbound pass, quickly returned it to Jordan, cutting toward the rim, and Jordan finished with a powerful dunk over Mourning. The play was captured perfectly on camera and ended up being the shot used in the film.
The game itself took place on March 12, 1993, and Jordan delivered one of his signature performances. He finished with 52 points, nine rebounds, and five assists while shooting 21 of 35 from the field in a 123–108 victory for the Chicago Bulls. Mourning still had a strong game with 25 points and eight rebounds on 9 of 18 shooting, but the night belonged to Jordan.
Historically, Jordan also dominated its head-to-head matchups. Across their meetings, Jordan held a 22–10 record against Mourning’s teams, including a 12–8 mark in the regular season and an overwhelming 10–2 record in the playoffs. In those games, Jordan averaged 30.9 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.0 assists.
The story perfectly captures why Jordan’s reputation as the ultimate competitor remains legendary. Trash talk rarely rattled him. Instead, it usually pushed him to respond immediately, often in spectacular fashion.
