John Salley, one of the most important members of the Detroit Pistons side that won back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and 1990, would never have ended up in Chicago, had it not been for Michael Jordan’s opportunism.
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Once the “Bad Boys” roster disbanded in 1992, Salley joined the Miami Heat for three seasons, before joining the Toronto Raptors in 1995, where Isiah Thomas was an executive. Just months into his first season in Toronto, he was cut. He went on to sign with the Chicago Bulls, a move that shocked everyone.
The back story behind the move still has a lot of grey, but music producer k-os claims Jordan was instrumental in making it happen.
The Canadian rapper and song-writer revealed that the Raptors benched Salley following a mishap after a party in Toronto before eventually buying him out of his contract. Jordan stepped in and convinced him to move to Chicago. k-os said on Q with Tom Power podcast:
“John Salley had a huge party in the first week on the Raptors, and a car ended up in Lake Ontario on the ice, and so Isiah had to bench him, who’s his best friend… He called Michael Jordan told him the story and Michael Jordan was like ‘You don’t have to worry about that, cos you’re on the Bulls now.’ So he just basically took him.”
Salley’s exit eventually piled a mountain of regrets on Thomas. First, one of Isiah’s closest friends teamed up with his biggest rival. And then he had to sit back and watch them break the record for most wins in a regular season with 72, before winning the NBA title.
For Salley, though, the move to Chicago to team up with Jordan was the most logical choice to make.
Salley’s friendship with Jordan
On the Dan Patrick Show, Salley revealed Jordan and him struck at a friendship around the time the rivalry between the Pistons and Bulls began brewing. His then teammates weren’t too pleased about it. He recalled:
“I would hang with MJ. So I was doing my first late-night talk show during the season in 1988, but I would hang out with MJ, he would come to Detroit, I would pick him up, we would go eat you now? But I always been around buddy, to this day I love him to death. But my teammates, after my first season, made sure,’Hey if they not wearing our colors they not our gang.'”
Salley did maintain a respectable distance from Jordan until he left the Pistons. Once he moved to Miami their bond deepened. That friendship later translated to another championship ring for Salley, besides being part of, arguably, the greatest team in NBA history.
