Michael Jordan was fearless on the court. He didn’t care who he was playing against. Jordan would bring the fight on a nightly basis. Not just that, but Jordan would also try to talk trash to his opponents.
There was nothing MJ would not try in order to get under his opponent’s skin. Jordan didn’t mind his opponents trying to talk trash to him. But he did know how to read his opponents’ confidence based on when they start talking trash.
In the final episode of ‘The Last Dance’ docuseries, Michael Jordan was talking to his teammates about former Bulls star BJ Armstrong and the trash-talking he was doing during their 1998 playoff series.
Jordan noted that it’s easy to talk trash when you’re in the lead, but the sign of a good man is when he can talk trash when the teams are level or even when they’re behind:
Michael Jordan swinging a bat in the Bulls locker room while smoking a cigar and dunking on his opponents is the most Michael Jordan thing ever#TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/jO1qNOcbCV
— Blue Wire (@bluewirepods) May 11, 2020
“Let’s see if all that trash talking starts when it’s 0-0 instead of a 5-6 point lead. That’s where it starts. That’s the sign of a good man, if he can talk shit when it’s even score. Or talk sh*t when you’re behind. When you’re ahead, it’s easy to talk.”
Jordan’s comments have gone viral in the aftermath of the Suns-Mavs series. Luka Doncic and Devin Booker talked trash to each other. Booker was mocking Luka when he and the Suns were up in the series. But after the Mavericks were able to bring the series back and eliminate the Suns, Booker said almost nothing.
Michael Jordan clearly held respect for players who would talk trash when they weren’t in an advantageous position.
As far as MJ goes, he played the game with the same belief, as he didn’t care what the score was, he would continuously talk trash to his opponents and get under their skin. And trash-talking was an incredibly big part of that for Jordan.
