“Michael Jordan Started Telling Me to Take Off His Shoes!”: Former NBA Champion Recalls Going Back-and-Forth With His Airness

Stephen Jackson invited Tyson Chandler on the latest episode of the All The Smoke podcast and the duo narrated an iconic Michael Jordan anecdote. In 2010, after Jordan purchased the Charlotte Bobcats, he decided to team up with the team’s second unit and go up against the starting lineup. During this same practice session, things got heated between Jackson and the new team owner.

Michael Jordan is one of the most competitive athletes in sports history. Having a crazy obsession with winning, MJ was often heard pushing his teammates to the brink. These antics didn’t stop when he retired from the NBA either. His Airness continued to attend practice as a member of the management for the Washington Wizards, and later, as an owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.

Michael Jordan and Stephen Jackson got into a verbal altercation

Stephen Jackson was a hot-headed personality during his playing days. So, Jackson took exception to a 47-year-old Michael Jordan teaming up with the second unit and defeating the starting lineup. Apart from destroying the best players on the roster, MJ even cussed each one of them.

Stephen Jackson isn’t one of those players who will hesitate to retaliate. As heard during the episode of the podcast, the 6ft 8” Swingman barked back at the five-time Most Valuable Player. Soon, things would escalate. Tyson Chandler and the other guys watching the intense battle even believed that Stack Jack would be traded the very next day.

Jackson: “Do you remember when MJ came and took over practice? Remember me and him got into it at the practice? He came and took over practice. Me and him got into it and he (Michael Jordan) started telling me (to) take off his shoes. ‘I’ll never be MJ’ and all this. We was going at it and they beat us.”

Chandler: “Stack (Jerry Stackhouse) was across the gym screaming at him I was like ‘I don’t think Stak going to be here tomorrow’.”

Jackson: “Straight up. No bullsh*t. I was going at him. I’m like ‘Ni**a that’s old, that’s 20 years ago. You can’t do it now’. He wasn’t just killing but he put the winning attitude in the second team.”

 

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There were only a few personalities who had the guts to clap back at the ‘Black Cat’. Stephen Jackson might’ve been traded by the end of the 2010-2011 campaign, but he undoubtedly has a story of a lifetime to narrate because of it.

MJ once asked Greg Minor to take his Jordans off

Michael Jordan didn’t like the fact that the less capable players of the world donned his shoes. He would often be crude enough and ask them to take his shoes off. Stephen Jackson and the players of the Bobcats were one such incident.

Greg Minor was once given the difficult task of guarding the Chicago Bulls legend. Unfortunately for Minor, Jordan was locked in, getting buckets, as per usual. After getting into an altercation, Chauncey Billups narrated, the Bulls’ Shooting Guard asked Minor to take off the Jordans he was wearing.