We have all been there. You wake up in the morning and scroll through your feed of Instagram reels. And boom! You suddenly come across some retired NBA player from the 90s recounting a Michael Jordan trash-talking story on a podcast, that fills you up with all the motivation you need to jump out of bed and own your day. Shaquille O’Neal is no different from the average NBA fan in that respect.
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The big fella got inspired this morning by an untold Michael Jordan story. So he did the thing he likes doing the most on social media, share it with his followers. In the Instagram clip shared on Shaq’s stories, a former Vancouver Grizzlies player can be seen describing how a bit of trash-talking from one of his teammates prompted MJ to switch gears immediately.
Jordan was having an off night that game, shooting just 4-of-16 from the field. This was after the summer of 1995. In the offseason that year, then Grizzlies star Darrick Martin had been in LA to play the pickup games that MJ arranged in the practice dome that Warner Bros. had built in the parking lot of their studio to help the Chicago Bulls star workout while shooting Space Jam.
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The Grizzlies were up by 8 points with 10 minutes to go in the contest. This emboldened Martin to poke the bear, even though it was well-established by then that that’s a recipe for disaster.
“Hey Mike, sh*t’s not falling tonight, Mike. You’re having an off night, Mike,” the Grizzlies star told MJ.
This was all the motivation that the then three-time NBA Champion needed to turn the game on its head. Jordan went on a 24-point run in the last 10 minutes of the contest, that helped the Bulls not only neutralize the 8-point deficit, but also register a 6-point lead.
The last bucket of MJ’s run in the fourth quarter was a signature fadeaway jumper from mid-range. After draining the shot in front of the Grizzlies bench, he stared down Martin sitting there and said, “Shut up, you little b*tch.”
Shaq on his IG story pic.twitter.com/RzHBeTD7yB
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) January 12, 2025
Shaq was very impressed with the way Jordan responded to a cowardly call-out that targeted the Bulls superstar when he was down in the ground. But ironically, Martin triggered MJ’s killer mentality and cost his team the game.
“This just motivated the hell out of me this morning. Michael Jordan was always on go,” Shaq wrote in the caption of his story.
If this story motivated you as well, feel free to share it like Shaq did.
