Jeff Van Gundy didn’t mince his words when he said that he believes Michael Jordan is a con-man who softens up his opponents to later beat them.
Advertisement
Michael Jordan is a player who always looked for that extra motivation to get him going during or before games. A player of Jordan’s caliber could very easily get disengaged from a bout solely because of how easy the game comes to them. This is also another reason as to why ‘His Airness’ indulged in trash0talk as much as he did: to stay engaged in a game.
It’s one thing for Michael Jordan to get stirred up during a game due to a hard foul or an opponent calling him out. It’s a whole other aspect of the game when a team that you consider to be your rival has their head coach call you out in front of the entirety of NBA media.
This is what Jeff Van Gundy did to the Chicago Bulls shooting guard, who was the New York Knicks coach from 1996 to 2001.
Jeff Van Gundy calls out Michael Jordan for faking friendships across the NBA.
Given how competitive Michael Jordan was, it’s surprise that personalities around the league tried to stir up theories on what really makes the 6x champ tick. New York Knicks head coach, merely a year into his job, called out the ‘GOAT’ for faking friendships with players in the league.
“His [Michael Jordan] way is to befriend them, to soften them up, make them feel like he cares about them. The he goes out there and physically tries to destroy them,” said Van Gundy. In a radio interview amidst the Bulls second 3-peat era, Van Gundy go on to say:
“You watch him game-in and game-out and he slides up to guys and smiles at them, pats them on the a**, and then he goes out there and kicks their a**. They hug him after the game like that was some great thing that he got 45 on them. I don’t understand it.”
Michael Jordan would go on to respond to Jeff Van Gundy with both his words and his game. This is something we will delve into in the next 24 hours so be on the lookout for that.
