Michael Jordan was a fearsome player. His very presence was overwhelming for defenders. Combined with his lethal instinct, MJ was all in all a fear-inducing individual. However, his former baseball coach wasn’t all that intimidated by Michael even in 1988. An ex-Marine, Dick Neher, sneaked up on Michael and caught him off-guard. The instance was, in simple words, quite humiliating for His Airness.
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Back in school, when Jordan’s baseball dreams were still alive, he played under Neher. A strange character, Neher was tough but easily recognized Michael’s athleticism. But he also saw his downfall and the ending of his baseball career.
Years later, when he met Jordan, Dick decided to pull a prank on his former student. The prank left Michael Jordan fuming.
Dick Neher gave Michael Jordan a wedgie
At the peak of his career, there weren’t many men on the planet who could mess with Michael. He was a star among stars. A living legend. Michael’s persona was so grand, so charming, and at the same time intimidating. Men either cowered before him or wanted to be like him.
But Dick was made from a different cloth as revealed by Roland Lazenby in his book Michael Jordan: The Life. Lazenby wrote of the time MJ revisited his alma mater Laney High School. When Jordan left during a break, Neher followed him and executed the ultimate wedgie.
“Jordan went to yet another “appreciation” event at Laney High during the 1988 off-season. During a break, he slipped outside for some fresh air. Dick Neher, his old Babe Ruth coach, snuck up behind him, grabbed him by the band of his trousers and underwear, and pulled up high and hard to deliver the kind of wedgie that only an ex-Marine could fathom. (It was perhaps Jordan’s ultimate Hanes moment.) Stunned and instantly angered, Jordan whirled around, saw who it was, and told him, “Dick Neher, you’re still the craziest white man I know.”
Standing at 6ft 6″ and weighing 198 lbs, Jordan wasn’t someone an average man would prank so brutally. But Neher, as Michael so aptly pointed out, was not a normal man.
MJ bullied Steve Kerr during Bulls’ practice
Jordan was a menacing man during his career. In 1988, Jordan was already an MVP. He was on his way up and the scariest basketball player on earth.
So, Dick messing with his so easily comes as a surprise. After all, he is the same man who bullied Steve Kerr during practice. In fact, Michael Jordan even punched the Golden State Warriors coach.
Perhaps it was the respect for Neher as his coach that stopped Michael from acting on his anger. Or maybe it was just the knowledge that the old baseball coach was a former Marine.
