Back in the 90s and before that, the players weren’t as disciplined as most of them are these days. Or maybe officiating in NBA was not as strict as today, but on a particular game, Michael Jordan must have wished it to be more strict.
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We are talking about a game where the Chicago Bulls’ 6ft 6” sheer muscle of a man got irritated by a 6ft 3” guard, who was playing for the New York Knicks and started bullying him around as he did with most other smaller guards he faced in his career.
But that guy, that day, was not ready to take it.
When Michael Jordan almost got his first beating in the NBA
It might not sit too well with Jordan fans, but the least arguable GOAT in NBA history, once almost got beaten up by Chris Childs, when both of them were both positioning themselves under the rim in what looked like a high-intensity game.
You can see Jordan intentionally hits Childs on the head which irked the latter, who already had multiple concussions in that season. As Chris threw the ball at MJ’s head, His Airness looked pretty hot as if he were about to land a punch or two on the Knicks guard.
But what ended up happening was, as Childs revealed to Bally Sports, “He ran up on me, I squared up, he stopped.”
To his relief, he did not get to hit Jordan, otherwise, his career would end sooner than it did. With the support MJ used to get from the officials, Childs, as he recently said, would have received a lifetime ban.
Why His Airness got the support of the officials
There are certain privileges you get when you are the best in the league. And these days it’s pretty obvious, but back in the day, when Jordan started getting the leeway it was pretty weird for the league.
But he earned that, after the amount of bullying he received at the hands of Detroit Pistons, famously known as the Bad Boy Pistons, for years.
After he overcame the Pistons and won the Bulls the first of their 6 championships, became a global superstar because of The Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics, and took the game of basketball to all new heights, Jordan earned himself that privilege.
