You’d either have to be crazy or insanely good at your craft to engage in a verbal war with players like Michael Jordan. And a former NFL player learned that the hard way when Jordan put him in his place following a lengthy back-and-forth.
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The exchange of words involved cars, money, fame, and legacy. This NFL superstar in question, however, remains anonymous in former NBA player Troy Hudson’s story.
Hudson revealed how this man — probably the No.1 receiver in the NFL at the time — kept trying to get under Jordan’s skin all night long. The former point guard acknowledged that going against Jordan isn’t something a lot of people can do, but this particular player was at the top of his game when this exchange happened.
Well, Jordan didn’t have to say much to be fair. His stats and popularity spoke for themselves. But the NFL star was relentless and kept insisting that he was just as big of a legend as the six-time NBA champ.
That’s when the Chicago Bulls icon reminded him of something very important. “It got real heated,” Hudson revealed.
“And after a while, Michael gives you that, ‘How many rings you got?’ Mike is always… He has six rings. So the guy is like, ‘I ain’t got no rings…’ Well, Mike is like, ‘You know what, I ain’t gonna say nothing else to you then’,” narrated Hudson.
This was followed by MJ simply walking off, but that doesn’t mean the NFL star relented. He followed him and kept saying, “You ain’t nothing sh**. I’m just as nice as you. I’m the man, too, I’m the man of what I do. So he kept doing that all the time for about 10 minutes,” said Hudson.
Jordan’s response? Nothing. At first, he just held up his six fingers to show the NFL man that he had six rings. That’s six more than he had achieved in his career. But when he said that he was the “man in my sport”, Jordan savagely replied, “I am my sport.” Four words that shut the troll up.
For anyone who witnessed this exchange, or heard or read about it later, it’s a stark reminder of why poking the bear is not a good idea. MJ is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, and one of the most influential athletes ever. Whoever the NFL star was, he was undoubtedly levels below His Airness.
As for MJ flexing how many titles he won with the Bulls, that’s nothing new. The GOATs of the game love reminding their haters of their success. Kobe Bryant did it several times during his career, as has Klay Thompson, one of the greatest shooters of all time.
