Ron Harper played alongside Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls for three and a half seasons, winning three NBA championships. But before Harper and Jordan were teammates, they were rivals.
And when they were rivals, Ron Harper knew what the golden rule was when it came to interacting with Michael Jordan. It was a bad idea to talk trash to MJ, and Harper took it to the next level, even refusing to talk to him during a card game.
“Before we were teammates, I remember I was getting ready to play against him and the night before our game, he had me and some other guys over to his house to play cards,” Harper recalled in a Q&A with HoopsHype.
“So we’re at MJ’s house the night before [our game] and we’re playing cards and he was sitting right next to me. He kept trying to talk to me like, ‘Harpy! What’s up, man? Everything good?’ I’m just like… [Looks straight ahead, wide-eyed]. I’d just mumble, ‘Hey Mike, how you doing?’ That’s it.
“He asked me, ‘What’s wrong?’ I told him, ‘I ain’t going to talk to you and say anything you can use to get upset because you’ll just keep shooting the damn ball over me and score on me all night. I’m just going to be nice and polite to you, buddy.'”
This is an epic story and just goes to show what an aura Michael Jordan had about himself even in the late 80s and early 90s. Ron Harper’s tactics naturally didn’t help him too much also, Michael Jordan averaged 32.6 points per game in 24 games against him during his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers.
Most People That Talked Trash To Michael Jordan Ended Up Regretting It
Michael Jordan has openly admitted that he would need to get himself hyped up by remembering or even making up slights against him from his opponents. So it’s easy to understand why people didn’t directly talk trash to him. Former Grizzlies man Darrick Martin tried it and found out in the worst way why very few dared to do it.
Kevin Garnett was another that learned early in his career never to talk smack to the GOAT. Michael Jordan averaged 30.1 points per game for his career and won 10 scoring titles, so it’s safe to say that even if you didn’t talk trash to him, you were likely to end up getting torched.
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