Michael Jordan’s status was something unbelievable for most people in the world. MJ was arguably the most famous person on earth during his tenure with the Chicago Bulls and his relevance was so incredible that even the people officiating matches felt admiration towards MJ.
Scottie Pippen once told Jack McCallum a story about how referees asked him if he could get them a pair of Jordan shoes. McCallum joined Zach Lowe’s podcast recently to tell the story about MJ’s clout in the NBA (via CBS Sports).
“The first person I talked to was Scottie Pippen, it was just kind of coincidentally. I remember saying to Scottie, you know, how little I kind of knew him, even though I was in his presence for 100 stories. Every time I’d go to Chicago, I’d end up doing a Michael story, and sort of the story or Scottie’s career was being overshadowed by Michael.
“And sure enough, during the interview, that’s what we ended up talking about, and Scottie said — does anybody have a deeper voice than that guy by the way? Imitating Pippen: ‘Well, that’s OK, I knew that’s what we’d talk about, but that’s OK.’
“And I’ll tell you Zach, he told me an anecdote the first 20 minutes. I will just never forget this. There’s like 10 quotes that stand out for me from doing those interviews, and one of Scottie’s was: ‘The referees used to ask me if I could get a pair of Michael’s shoes. They weren’t asking for Joe Dumars’ shoes.'”
You know MJ was great, he was the biggest deal in the NBA and even referees tried to get some memorabilia from His Airness. Imagine how good you have to be for that to happen. Jordan’s influence in sports is unmatched and this is the biggest proof of that. That’s how dominant he was and Pippen lived for that.
To be fair, who wouldn’t like a pair of Air Jordans?
