Michael Jordan’s infamous rants towards his former teammates have been well documented throughout the course of history. Everybody knows Jordan didn’t take losses lightly and was as harsh as he could be to try and bring the best out of his peers, even if that meant disrespecting them and going the extra mile more often than not.
As a matter of fact, Sam Smith even claimed Jordan took away Horace Grant’s food on a plane following a loss, which obviously caused even more friction in the relationship between the two.
That’s why Shannon Sharpe of Undisputed reached out to Grant to discuss the matter, with the former big man claiming that Jordan was a bit of a bully and you needed to stand up for yourself every single day or he’d get on your face until you just quitted:
“Horace told me: ‘If you didn’t confront Mike, he would ride you every day, all day, all the time. You had to stand up for yourself. I didn’t have a problem with Mike the player, I had a problem with how he tried to motivate me,'” Sharpe said during the show.
.@ShannonSharpe on his call with Horace Grant:
"Horace told me: 'If you didn't confront Mike, he would ride you every day, all day, all the time. You had to stand up for yourself. I didn't have a problem with Mike the player, I had a problem with how he tried to motivate me.'" pic.twitter.com/zXVUVV2Bg3
— Speakeasy (@speakeasytlkshw) May 8, 2020
Sharpe had already claimed that if Jordan had taken his food away from him, he’d just fight him every single day, stating that messing with someone’s food was the ultimate sign of disrespect.
Jordan is well aware of how poorly he treated his teammates but he has shown the slightest sign of remorse. According to him, that was the only way to know he could trust them in tough situations, and if someone didn’t like that they could just walk out the door.
That may not be the most productive or positive leadership style but hey, with 6 Championships under his belt and a perfect 6-6 record in the NBA Finals, it’s tough to argue with his methods.
