Sacramento rookie Walt Williams was once at the receiving end of Michael Jordan’s trash talk after failing to execute a basketball move against the Bulls legend.
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No matter how big or small a player you were, nobody was immune to Michael Jordan’s trash talk during his time in the league. The 6x NBA champion was known to talk smack to all his opponents, stemming from his excessive competitive zeal to succeed.
In the past, we heard stories of Hall of Famers Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and Magic Johnson have their episodes with his Airness. MJ would back his trash talk by annihilating his opponents on the court.
One such victim of MJ’s secret skill was Sacramento Kings rookie Walt Williams during the year 1992. The Kings were playing the Bulls in a pre-season game. Jordan and co were coming off winning back-to-back titles during the time.
During his contest with Bulls, Williams made a courageous attempt to play iso-ball with MJ that would, unfortunately, go completely wrong for the rookie.
Michael Jordan schooled Walt Williams in an isolation play.
Recently, Williams revealed his welcome to the NBA moment. The former Kings player shared an interesting story revolving around his first encounter with MJ.
During his first few minutes in the game, Williams attempted something that could go either way. The Kings ran a simple pick and roll play that would have Mitch Richmond take the jumper. However, Williams, who had the ball in his hands, had other plans.
But when I want off the pick, I just kinda’ looked and I said ‘Oh man, I got an ISO right here against Jordan.’ If I score on him, I can call my boys and let them know I scored on Jordan.”
“So I waved Mitch off, broke the play, and tried to do my ISO. I came right at Jordan with my patented crossover, right to left crossover.”
Walt Williams, 1-ON-1 with Basketball Network
Unfortunately, Williams couldn’t cross up MJ, who would steal the ball from the rookie. What made matters worse was Jordan performing a dunk at the end of the transition.
Knowing MJ, he wasn’t going to let the rookie off the hook. However, the Bulls superstar would walk up to Williams and part some knowledge to the young rookie.
“Jordan stole that thing, went down, and did his emblem dunk. When he ran back down, he tapped me on the butt and said, We watch film up here, baby. I knew you was gonna do that fake-a** crossover.”
“I don’t know if they anticipated they knew I was going to play in that preseason game, but he knew certain things I would do out there, for sure.”
The fact that MJ watched tapes of rookies even before they made their NBA debut spoke of his competitive mindset and work ethic. Despite being at the top of the heap, the 10x scoring champion always did his homework before a game.
