Michael Jordan took winning to the extreme.
His ruthless persona and uncompromising competitive edge powered the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championship in the 1990s.
However, Jordan’s teammates often bore the brunt of his unwavering commitment to success.
During ‘The Last Dance’, the hit Netflix documentary chronicling the dynastic Bulls, Jordan was often shown as an aggressive competitor, laying into teammates Scott Burrell and Steve Kerr during practices whether through name-calling or outright bullying.
“Let’s not get it wrong,” former Bull Will Perdue said. “He was an a******.
“He was a jerk. He crossed the line numerous times.”
Jud Buechler said teammates were “afraid” of Jordan, especially after he punched Kerr in practice.
MJ rarely showed emotion, but in a candid moment during episode 7 of the documentary, ‘His Airness’ choked up amid a conversation about how his teammates viewed him.
Jordan was at first defiant, saying people who describe him as a ‘tyrant’ only do because they “never won anything.”
He says he was just holding his teammates to the same standard he held himself.
“When people see this, they’re going to say ‘Well, he wasn’t really a nice guy, he may have been a tyrant,’” Jordan said. “Well that’s you, because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well.”
But as Jordan tried to explain his mindset, he became overwhelmed by emotion and had to call for a break.
“I don’t have to do this. I’m only doing it because it is who I am,” Jordan said, fighting back tears.
“That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t play that way,” Jordan said, his voice cracking before asking director Jason Hehir to pause.
Hehir later revealed on ESPN’s Jalen & Jacoby Aftershow that the scene occurred just 45 minutes into his first interview with Jordan.
Hehir said the “whole project changed” in that moment because he was initially fearful that Jordan would not be as open and vulnerable as he needed him to be to make the documentary work.
They eventually spoke for over eight hours and that candid moment was when Hehir knew Jordan was wiling to go wherever he needed to.
“What are the things that elicit that kind of emotion from him? Showing him his mom reading a letter home from him, his mom’s voice, his mom’s face. Family elicits emotion from him,” Hehir told Jalen & Jacoby.
“And his philosophy, how he lives his life, defending that. He is so adamant about that that he gets emotional about it.”
Jordan’s methods to instil the same fire he had into his teammates may have been unconventional, but they clearly worked.
The Bulls won two separate three-peats during the ’90s — the first between 1991 and 1993 and the second between 1996 and 1998.
Jordan never faced a Game 7 in the championship series and won six Finals MVP, cementing his status as the greatest player who ever lived.
His mentality inspired people around the world, not least the late, great Kobe Bryant, who’s ‘Mamba Mentality’ was simply a continuation of the spirit Jordan embodied throughout his iconic career.
