Dashing children's hopes, turning Isaiah Thomas Olympic dreams into a
nightmare and showing his fans that they risk a world
of pain if they try and give him a high
5.
Michael Jordans beloved by millions,
but definitely not everyone. Together,
Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan fashioned their own twin Infinity
Gauntlets by winning half a dozen championships.
But a matching set of hardware does not necessarily make
a friendship last.
Pippen has aired his grievances with Jordan a few times
over the years,
and one of his big criticisms of his fellow Hall
of Famer is that he's not a team player,
at least off the court.
In his memoir, Unguarded, Pippen spills a great deal of
ink sharing his thoughts about Jordan's involvement in the 2020
Chicago Bulls docu series The Last Dance.
Pippen believes that it was an exercise and self aggrandizement
for Jordan,
who would only agree to participate in the project if
he essentially got to control the narrative.
In his book, Pippen writes.
I was nothing more than a prop,
His best teammate of all time,
He called me. He couldn't have been more condescending if
he tried.
Each episode was the same,
Michael on a pedestal. His teammates,
secondary, smaller. Pippin later took aim at Jordan's prowess on
the court as well.
He's a horrible player. He was horrible to play with.
He was all one-on-one. He's shooting bad shot
in 2023 Make a Wish praised Michael Jordan for gifting
the charitable organization with $10 million,
the largest donation it has ever received.
However, Jordan once got called out for not doing enough
to make a difference in the lives of his youngest
fans.
In a 1992 MTV interview,
Tupac suggested that Jordan's actions would speak louder than his
wallet,
saying I have never seen Michael Jordan in the hood.
Let's see Jordan come down to the inner city,
just a parking lot, and just shoot the ball with
the kids.
Bet you that would change their life.
But maybe Jordan and kids aren't the best mix.
He was presented with an opportunity to make a lot
of children happy in 2016 when he and fellow NBA
great Chris Paul made a special appearance at a flight
school summer camp. Paul made a wager with Jordan.
He would take shots on the basketball court where the
campers were gathered,
and if he missed three of them,
the kids would all get a pair of Air Jordans.
Being the fierce competitor that he is,
Jordan didn't purposely brick the shots.
Instead, he let the campers down by making every one
of them.
Robert Parrish was among the former teammates Michael Jordan butted
heads with during the Bulls glory days.
He'd won three championships with the Boston Celtics before he
came to Chicago in
1996, and the season pro handled a charged moment with
MJ like a matador.
In an interview with ESPN,
Parrish recalled his reaction to Jordan chewing him out over
a mistake he made during practice,
saying, I told him I'm not as enamored with you
as these other guys.
I've got some rings too.
At that point, he told me I'm going to kick
your ass.
I took one step closer and said no,
you really aren't. After that,
he didn't bother me. However,
the way Jordan treated his other teammates bothered Parrish,
along with the fact that his teammates seemed too scared
to stand up to him.
During Parrish's 2020 appearance on the Cedric Maxwell Podcast,
he and Maxwell reminisced about their time together with the
Celtics and playing with another legend,
Larry Bird. There is no way
we would tolerate that behavior from Larry.
According to Michael Jordan, his feelings of bitterness toward Isaiah
Thomas stem from the former Detroit Piston players refusal to
shake hands with him when the Pistons lost the Eastern
Conference finals to the Chicago Bulls in
1991. There's no way you can convince me he wouldn't
after watching the documentary, Thomas told Cosmo Tay TV.
He calls me an and then I proceed to watch
a whole documentary about him being an
until I get a public apology.
This beef is going to go on for a long,
long time because I'm from the West Side of Chicago.
There's also that whole Dream Team debacle that ensued after
the handshake snub.
Thomas's absence from his country's famed
1992 men's Olympic basketball team was perplexing.
But in a 2020 episode of The Dream Team Tapes
podcast,
writer Jack McCallum played a recording of Jordan saying that
he wouldn't play on the squad if Thomas was also
on it.
A month before McCallum shared the Jordan recording,
Thomas had spoken to Get Up about the possibility that
he missed out on getting a gold medal at the
Olympics because of his rivals vindictiveness.
Saying if that's the reason why I didn't make the
Dream Team,
that I am more disappointed today than I was back
then.
When I wasn't selected. Comedian Hassan Minaj thought he was
going to get the opportunity to share an unforgettable moment
with one of his heroes when he learned that Michael
Jordan was celebrating his birthday at the Bellagio Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas.
He was right, unfortunately. On The Tonight Show,
Minaj recalled driving from Los Angeles to Sin City and
hanging around the Bellagio Casino until the wee hours of
the morning in hopes of meeting Jordan.
When he finally spotted the NBA player leaving,
he ran toward him, only for Jordan to give a
little nod to his security security guard to take care
of Minaj and his security guard grabs him by the
neck, Just lifts me up and
boom, just body slams me.
Perhaps it stemmed from the incident,
but after he later watched the last dance,
Minaj argued that Jordan is undeserving of the designation of
the
NBA's ultimate winner. He argued on JJ Redick's The Old
Man and the Three that Jordan's teammate Steve Kerr was
more worthy of that honor.
There wasn't much overlap between Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Michael
Jordan's basketball careers,
so fans didn't get to see the two iconic athletes
develop a fierce rivalry.
Both players also received Presidential Medals of Freedom from former
President Barack Obama in 2016.
However, Abdul Jabbar was the only one of the two
who was honored for his activism as well as his
athletic achievements.
For Abdul Jabbar, it's Jordan's lack of involvement in politics
that leaves him lacking as a role model.
Jordan had previously said the reason he stays out of
politics is that,
quote, Republicans buy sneakers, too.
Speaking to NPR in 2015,
Abdul Jabbar said you can't be afraid of losing shoe
sales if you're worried about your civil and human rights.
He took commerce over conscience.
It's unfortunate for him, but he's got to live with
it.
I wasn't a politician when I was playing my support.
You know, I was focused on my craft.
Was that selfish? Probably. You might think that wealthy singer
Chamillionaire would hit it off with a business minded billionaire
like Michael Jordan.
However, in a 2009 vlog,
Chamillionaire took Jordan to task for turning down a simple
photo request at a party.
Chamillionaire then tried to express to Jordan just how big
of a fan he was by telling the NBA icon
that he had purchased one of his jerseys for
$7000. Jordan's response? He'd agreed to take a photo with
Chamillionaire if he paid
15,000, $1000 for another jersey.
Chamillionaire said that he looked up to Jordan growing up,
so his encounter with his idol was a huge let
down.
Another rapper's MJ encounter serves as a cautionary tale about
purchasing signed Jordan merch.
Common used to be a ball boy for the Chicago
Bulls,
and he once tried to procure Jordan's autograph for a
young fan in exchange for $5.
I said look Mike's can you sign this for the
for this kid And he's like,
you sign it. It was like a joke.
Common did exactly as Jordan said,
but he missed out on that $5.00 because he misspelled
Michael.
The sports and reality TV worlds collided in January
2023 when Scottie Pippen's ex-wife,
The Real Housewives of Miami star Larsa Pippen,
made her relationship with Michael Jordan's son Marcus Jordan Instagram
official.
TMZ asked Michael if he approved of the pair dating
in July
2023 and the jump man's response was an adamant and
simple no.
Marcus and Larsa later discussed Michael's public disapproval of their
relationship during an episode episode of the podcast that they
started together,
Separation Anxian anxiety with Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan.
While Marcus insisted that his dad's response to TMZ was
ingest,
Larsa didn't agree that it was just a harmless joke
saying I didn't think it was funny.
There's nothing funny about it.
I was kind of embarrassed.
Lars humiliation was compounded by her previous assertion that both
her and Marcus family members had made their peace with
the relationship.
Putting Larsa in such an awkward position was certainly not
a great way for Michael to win the favor of
of his potential future daughter-in-law,
though that may not matter anymore as Marcus and Larsa
split in February
2024. Michael Jordan has earned more than a few mentions
in rap songs,
but there is one rapper whose Jordan reference isn't in
reverence to his greatness.
Ghetto Boys member Willie D dissed him in a
2016 song, and in 2020 Willie spoke to Vlad TV
about why Jordan is among the many public figures that
he disses in the track.
While he conceded that Jordan deserves to be considered the
NBA GOAT,
he can't stand the way the former basketball player acts
off the court.
Willie accused him of being too profit driven when it
comes to his Air Jordan brand and criticized him for
treating others poorly all too often.
He also brought up Chamillionaire's story about the picture refusal
as an example of Jordan being rude.
Jordan has a history of being a toe.
Despite being rivals on the court,
Michael Jordan and Phoenix Suns great Charles Barkley struck up
a friendship.
They had a falling out,
however, after Barkley criticized Jordan's management of the then Charlotte
Bobcats during a 2012 appearance on The Waddle and Sylvie
Show.
Afterward, an incensed Jordan called Barkley.
That's the last thing I heard was
Mother, you're supposed to be my boy and blow up.
The former friends stopped speaking afterward,
but Sir Charles said that he and his Earnest were
keeping their decade long feud quiet and civil when he
appeared on 60 Minutes in
2023. Barclay defended his decision to publicly pass judgment on
Jordan in 2012,
arguing that it would have been unfair of him not
to share his honest opinion of Jordan's leadership skills just
because they were friends.
Barclay is, after all, an NBA analyst.
Barclay also said that his former pals talent doesn't give
him the right to be a jerk.
This is one instance where a Jordan critic would like
to bury the hatchet.
Barkley said, however, that he would not be the one
who extends an olive branch,
explaining I got an ego too.