Michael Jordan understandably didn’t want any parts of Mike Tyson during his heyday, but when it comes to tall, lanky white boys, he’s been known to throw down.
The NBA great humbly admitted to giving Steve Kerr a nice shiner in 1995 when his anger got the best of him, but the current coach of the Golden State Warriors isn’t the only Chicago Bulls coach he threw a physical jab at. Former Chicago Bulls center (during the first three-peat championship run) has a story to tell.
Via Larry Brown Sports:
While hosting the Bulls pregame show on CSN Chicago Wednesday, Will Perdue provided some more details. He claims Grant left the part out about MJ being frustrated because the second unit was whooping the first unit.
“First of all, the second unit was kicking the first unit’s butt, and Michael wasn’t too happy about it,” Perdue explained, as transcribed by Dan Feldman of Pro Basketball Talk. “And we used to do that actually quite often in practice.”
Perdue then explained how assistant coach Johnny Bach had instructed him to keep setting hard screens on Jordan, as Phil Jackson and the Bulls coaches wanted to see if MJ was willing to fight through them for four quarters.
“So, we kept running this play, and sometimes my screens were illegal. Sometimes they were not,” Perdue said. “But my job was to make sure I hit him. Well one time he said, ‘If you do that again I’m going to make you pay for it.’ Well Johnny Bach just stood there and goes, ‘Run it again.’
“So we ran it again, and this time I figured if I’m going to get my money’s worth. I nailed him, knocked him to the ground, kind of stood over him a little bit. He stood up, popped me and before I could get him they got us and that was the end of it.”
This story was surfaced after Horace Grant revealed it on Hot 97. Take a look at that video below.
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Photo: WGN
