What if I told you the greatest basketball player in the history of the sport appeared to love punching his own teammates, preferably in the face. Like, he cocked his arm back, swung for the fences, and unlike his plate appearances in his baseball career, Michael Jordan connected with the might of Mike Tyson.
This is the ‘Michael Jordan Punching His Teammates’ story, but let’s set this baby up first.
In the 2018-19 season, the NBA world was set alight when Kevin Durant and Draymond Green were caught jawing at each other after a loss. Some across the NBA insisted it signaled Durant was on his way out of the Bay Area. While he did relocate to Brooklyn, could one little squabble really have made Durant skip town? It’s dubious, at best.
But the media made it seem like Durant and Green were at war. Videos of the clip were played 24/7 on every sports network. All because of a misunderstanding between teammates.
And this brings us to the star of Space Jam and other quality Hollywood movies like…well, it was just Space Jam.
One can’t even imagine what would’ve transpired 30 years ago if reporters had the same technology to cover Michael Jordan.
His Airness is famous for being a basketball god, but not a very benevolent one. Jordan’s goal on the basketball court wasn’t to just beat you: it was to rip your throat out. The Internet is full of mythical tales of Jordan’s trash talking. He would beat guys down physically and mentally, no matter who was on the other end of the court.
In fact, Jordan didn’t care if you wore the same uniform as him. If you were guarding him, you were the enemy. Jordan didn’t take prisoners.
@clutchstories Michael Jordan PUNCHED how many teammates?? 🤯 @leslieeemichelle #clutchpoints #nba #mj #michaeljordan #mj #fyp #didyouknow
MJ would swing on anyone who raised his ire, and there were at least three recorded instances when teammates took a punch because they crossed Black Jesus.
Perhaps the most famous teammate who Jordan physically fought is none other than Steve Kerr. The Warriors head coach was a sharpshooting guard who won his first championship with the Bulls in 1996, playing the role of spot shooter and pesky, white guy defender.
You know, Kerr had moxie and was full of grit. Probably woke up every single day blessed, grinding away at the lab.
Steve Kerr and Michael Jordan both played the guard spot. In practice, they matched up frequently. And Kerr wasn’t ready to back down to the legend.
One day, Kerr got fed up. Jordan’s trash talk was just too much. He decided to get in Jordan’s grill. He attempted to test fate, and as we all know, fate isn’t to be trifled with.
We don’t have footage of the fight, but do we really need it?
Steve Kerr isn’t the only guard who got his face rocked by a Jordan punch.
Jud Buechler became a key bench player for the Bulls and another target for MJ.
The 6’6 second round pick was also known to get into it with Jordan when scrimmages occurred – but as we’re learning, who wasn’t?
Phil Jackson would push Jordan’s buttons by making him play on the second team to fire him up. This meant Jordan wasn’t only on the same team as Jud, but even on the same practice squad. Somehow, poor Buechler still ended up taking a shot.
We don’t know much about the Buechler/Jordan showdown, and details are lacking. Thanks to Jackson putting a screen around practice courts, it was hard to get any juicy info from the previously tight-lipped team.
Giving MJ the benefit of the doubt here, he’s currently 2-0 in teammate fisticuffs.
So far, we got two guys going mano-a-mano with one of the best who ever lived. Now, you might be thinking, “I thought Jordan was tough. Why is he taking on two dudes who are his size or smaller? I want to see a real fight.”
Enter Will Perdue.
For reference, Perdue is a legit seven footer. Doesn’t look like much weight, but he’s definitely got Jordan beat in the reach category.
No matter. Anyone who got on Jordan’s bad side got a fist to the face.
In one particular scrimmage, Perdue was feeling feisty. He hit Jordan with a rough pick, which definitely would’ve been illegal in today’s NBA but was probably passable in the 90’s.
Jordan gave Perdue a warning. If it happened again, it was gonna get messy.
Jackson, always the instigator, called for the play to be run again. Perdue must’ve eaten his Wheaties, because sure enough, he knocked Jordan to the floor with the same pick.
William Mother Loving Perdue was here to try to trifle with His Airness. Rut-roh, as the cool kids say. He was ‘about to get iiiiiiiiiiiit’
Perdue was hit with a flurry of punches, and was pulled away from Jordan by his teammates, but he had earned MJ’s respect; because you apparently earn Jordan’s respect by competing in a literal battle of fists or something.
So there are the three teammates (that we know of) who Jordan physically beat up. Who knows what other confrontations Jordan got in to behind the curtain of secrecy the Bulls used?
There are two takeaways from this. One, Jordan is one of the most hard-nosed competitors of All-Time. Who tries to K.O. the guys who are working with you to get a championship? And three separate guys??
The second point is that these men won championships together. Perdue, Kerr, and Buechler might’ve gotten hit in the face, but they popped back up and played their way into the history books. Maybe the fighting even helped a little.
Essentially, Michael Jordan taught us that we should all fistfight each other because it means we’ll all win NBA Finals, I think. Something like that. There’s semantics involved, but go punch your boss right now. He’ll respect you for it, then give you a raise. Trust us.
So the next time you hear two players yelled at each other a little in practice don’t lose your head. Who knows? Maybe they’re on the way to basketball greatness too.
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