Michael Jordan and the Bulls coined the term ‘Doughboy’ for Stacey King with the former berating him for underperforming.
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Michael Jordan was never known to be a ‘nice guy’ in the NBA. Pat Riley for example, saw through MJ’s charade during his days coaching the Knicks, yelling at his players during the 1992 Playoffs to stop befriending him when they know he uses that bond to decimate them the next game.
It wasn’t only the opposition that Michael Jordan would get into tiffs with on the court. Off NBA hardwood, the 6x champ was just as hard on his teammates as he was on it. Several stories have come out over the years of Jordan berating his own squad time and time again for underperforming.
Hell, MJ even socked Steve Kerr in the face during a rather rough practice one day and while that may be story that they can laugh at today, tensions were as high as they could’ve been in that moment.
Stacey King, another role player for the Chicago Bulls during the early 90s championship runs had quite the encounters with Michael Jordan, with Sam Smith exposing a couple unsavory moments between the two.
Michael Jordan went off on Stacey King for not playing well.
Stacey King was drafted 6th overall in 1989 but certainly did not play up to the standards of a top 6 pick. He was a below average defender and couldn’t box out (great footwork though). While he was a functional big-man, King was better suited being a back-up in the NBA.
Michael Jordan however, didn’t seem to care about the fact that the now Bulls color commentator was clearly not up to the task of being a ‘generational big-man’ during a particularly lackluster stretch for Stacey King where he grabbed merely one rebound over 3 games, MJ went off on him.
“You ever hear of a guy, six-eleven maybe and two hundred sixty pounds, a guy big and fat like that and he can’t get but two rebounds, if that many, running all over the damn court and he gets two rebounds? Big guy like that and he gets one rebound.”
“Can’t even stick his ass into people and get more than that…Big, fat, fat guy. One rebound in three games. Power forward. Maybe they should call it powerless forward.”
The 6x champ let it be known during the ‘Last Dance’ docuseries, while getting a tad bit emotional, that he only berates players when he asks them to do things that he would do himself. However, nicknaming a man who has had troubles with his weight in the past ‘Doughboy’, certainly wouldn’t fly today.
