In Netflix’s The Last Dance, people closest to Michael Jordan revealed that he’d often create narratives in his head to target a player or team or push himself to play better. With most refraining from irking the Bulls icon, he was left to his own devices to find motivation to humiliate an opponent. However, in the rare instances where an opponent would talk trash to him, he made sure he made them regret it, as Darrick Martin learned firsthand.
In an interview with Aaron Ross, retired forward Antonio Harvey spoke about the harrowing experience of facing Jordan’s wrath. In a game between the then-Vancouver Grizzlies and the Bulls during the 1996-97 season, the underdogs had the reigning champions on the ropes. At the end of three quarters, they led by two points, with the six-time NBA champion struggling to find his rhythm.
With his team leading, Martin called out Jordan for his poor outing. That’s all it took for him to flip a switch and give the Grizzlies point guard and his team a beatdown they’d never forget. Harvey recalled,
“We’re up [and] Mike is four for 16 from the field, he’s having a rough night. So, Darrick, decides because there’s about 10 minutes to go in the game and we’re winning, he decides to say to Michael Jordan, who’s having an off-night, ‘Hey Mike! Sh*t’s not falling tonight, Mike! You’re having an off-night, Mike!'”
Jordan, who was on the bench, re-entered the game and scored 19 points in six minutes. After hitting his final jump shot of the game to take the score beyond the Grizzlies’ reach, the Bulls icon told Martin,
“Little man, I told you about talking trash to me… Never try that sh*t again!”
Martin learned the hard way that it’s best to leave Jordan alone, especially when he’s down. However, he isn’t the only one who poked the bear and regretted it.
Reggie Miller made the mistake of talking trash to Jordan
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Hall of Famer Reggie Miller recalled an instance where he called out Jordan and essentially cost the Pacers a game. He said,
“[I told him], ‘Michael, who do you think you are? The great Michael Jordan? That’s right, there’s a new kid in town’… At half [time] I have 10 and he has four points…End of the game, he ended up with 44 and I ended up with 12.”
After the final buzzer, the Bulls guard told Miller, “You never talk to Black Jesus like that.” Players indulge in trash-talking to gain a psychological edge over their opponents. However, it seemingly always had the opposite effect when someone tried it on Jordan.
