Michael Jordan threw a punch at Will Perdue during Chicago Bulls practice after the latter had set an illegal pick on him.
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Michael Jordan wasn’t afraid to call anybody out, especially if you were his teammate. ‘The Last Dance’ docuseries revealed several instances where the 6x champ berated his own squad members on the Chicago Bulls for not pulling their weight and dragging the team down.
One thing that wasn’t talked about during the docuseries was Michael and the crew calling Stacey King ‘Doughboy’ due to him being a heavy-set man. This is just a glimpse into what Jordan was like with his teammates and back in the 90s, this was looked at as banter between friends.
Michael Jordan also seems to be completely fine with socking his Bulls teammates in the face as he once punched sharpshooter, Steve Kerr, during practice. While tensions rose between the two, they subsequently died down and continued to be on good terms with one another.
Michael Jordan punched Will Perdue during Bulls practice.
Prior to Michael Jordan punching Steve Kerr in the face in 1995, he had a similar situation with big man, Will Perdue. Horace Grant, who was with the Chicago Bulls for their first 3-peat before joining forces with Shaq and Penny in Orlando, details an incident where Perdue and Jordan got into it during practice.
“I hate to tell this story but Will and I are still good friends. Typical Phil Jackson; we run this play and Will set and illegal pick on MJ and MJ said, ‘Will, don’t do that again.’ ‘Whatchya talking about?’ asked Will. MJ says ‘alright’.”
“Phil says run it again. So, we naturally run it two more times; illegal pick. MJ walks up to Will: boom. Lit him up. It was over. We grabbed Will, told him you’re not going to hurt MJ, he can take care of himself. Next day on the plane, Will gets on with this huge shiner.”
According to Will Perdue himself on the Rich Eisen Show, this was normal and that him and Michael Jordan went about the rest of their practices as if nothing happened.