It’s not a secret that Michael Jordan is one of the greatest trash talkers in NBA history. His Airness mastered the art of getting into the skins of his opponents and he didn’t hesitate to do the same with his own teammates.
Recently, HoopsHype talked with four players that played with both LeBron James and Michael Jordan to define the GOAT and Brendan Haywood revealed details of the things that happened to Jordan and Russell.
Brendan Haywood: Mike wanted to cut your heart out. He wanted you to fear him. Mike wanted, defensively and offensively, to dominate you. That’s where they are different. He wanted to talk trash to you. He wanted to let you know that you couldn’t guard him. Some of the days in practice, what MJ was saying to Byron Russell were just flat-out embarrassing. He would just go after this guy! It wasn’t like he didn’t like him. It’s just how he was. They used to compete in practice but Russell was just a gluten for punishment. He would talk trash to MJ every day. But you can’t win that battle. One day, MJ was cooking him and he pulled up and hit a game-winner. He said: “That’s why they call you the human highlight reel. Not because you have any highlights of your own but because you are in all of mine.” That’s GOAT trash talk. That shut it down.
Jordan was really committed to winning and he always wanted his teammates to have as much passion as him. He easily lost his cool due to the rest of the players not giving their 110% every time and Michael let them know whenever he had the chance.
Poor Russell had to deal with Jordan as the hardest opponent of all and the worst nightmare as a teammate. He always tried to push everybody and not everybody was ready for that.
