Michael Jordan’s notoriously competitive nature has been known to spill over into physical confrontations — with teammates in particular — and former Bulls teammate Horace Grant simply added to the legend last week in an interview with a New York radio station.
Grant recalled when Jordan punched Will Perdue during practice in 1991, uniting the 7-footer with Steve Kerr and Reggie Miller on an exclusive list of players Jordan has struck.
“I hate to tell this story but Will and I are still good friends,” Grant said during a visit to New York’s Hot 97 radio station. “Typical Phil (Jackson) running his play and Will set a legal pick on MJ. MJ said, ‘Will, don’t do it again.’ ‘What are you talking about it?’ That’s Will. MJ said, ‘All right.’
“Phil said run it again, so naturally we ran it two more times. Legal pick. MJ walks up to Will — boom. Lit him up.”
Grant said teammates grabbed Perdue. “You’re not going to hurt MJ,” he said. “So the next day … Will gets on the plane with a huge shiner.”
The retired power forward fondly reminisced about other aspects of his days with Jordan, his teammate on three championship teams, as well as with Kobe Bryant, who helped Grant win one more title as a Laker. Some ancedotes:
— Jordan’s favorite snack is pineapple.
— Grant and Scottie Pippen would watch Jordan shake hands with other teams’ captains at half court. “If we see captains of the other team smile and shake his hand and laugh, we know we had that game because they were having fun with MJ. But we know MJ was thinking about putting the boot on your throat, which he did.”
— Jackson was a “genius” to be able to manage the various egos on his championship teams.
— Grant said it’s fair to compare Bryant and Jordan. “You can compare them because their attitude toward the game and their opponent is so similar, and the passion for the game.”
— Jackson “the mastermind behind everything, would put MJ on the second team,” opposite Pippen’s squad, to fuel Jordan’s competitive fire. Of course, punches got thrown. Many fights. I’m just so happy that social media wasn’t (around) back then.”
— Grant recalled a 1993 game when former Washington Bullet LaBradford Smith scored 37 points off Jordan, which Jordan called “embarrassing” at the time. “Everybody (was) saying this is the next MJ and he had scored that many points on MJ,” Grant said. “The next game, we played them in their arena. MJ had 40 at halftime. Forty. And you never heard of LaBradford Smith again.”
Twitter: @_phil_thompson
