Even though Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ docuseries ‘The Last Dance’ finished a couple of days ago, we’re still knowing details of the stuff we saw in the film. One of the most controversial events during MJ’s tenure with the Bulls was his fight with teammate Steve Kerr, something that was addressed in the documentary.
During a practice session, MJ was pissed because Phil Jackson was calling foul every time he touched Steve Kerr. At some point, things got heated with Kerr punching MJ in the chest and Jordan hitting his teammate in the face.
That moment was witnessed by a bunch of people and some of them were friends of Luc Longley, then Chicago Bulls’ big man. After the whole incident happened, Jordan talked to them and warned them to not tell anybody about what they just saw.
“We were in this tiny little opera setting way above the training basketball courts, we were watching it and filming it,” said Gerard Neesham, an Australian national and eye-witness, via Eammon Tiernan of 7News.com.au.
“There was an incident and then Michael Jordan came over to us and said: ‘You two Aussies’. We looked at him and he said: ‘You didn’t see anything’.
“So I’m sort of bound by the fact that 22 years ago he said to me we didn’t see anything.
“As it’s turned out it (the incident) was pretty extraordinary but we were given the opportunity to spend four or five days there thanks to Luc Longley.”
MJ didn’t hesitate to bully his teammates and use his tactics to get under their skins. It seems like he did the exact same thing with these people, preventing them to share what they saw with the rest of the world.
Too bad there isn’t a video of the incident, only the testimony of the witnesses and the players involved, Kerr and Jordan.
After that, according to the two legends, their relationship dramatically improved, so, if you think about it, that fight actually helped the team.
