Michael Jordan was known for being ‘psychotic’ in his approach to winning. Jordan has often been described as an “a**hole” by his teammates, as most didn’t agree with his extreme approach to securing “winning”. However, without the Bulls’ then-head coach Phil Jackson, we don’t know if MJ could have led his team to the Championship even with his radical methods. Jackson played multiple roles on that 90s’ Bulls team. He not only coached the team but often played mental games with his players in an attempt to bring the best out of them.
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Jackson also had a special talent for managing superstars, the legendary coach being at the helm of three different three-peat teams in NBA history. But that being said, not even Coach Jackson could completely hold down Jordan. MJ’s competitive aggression often became a point of conflict within the team. But Jordan’s anger did warrant a lot of concern from Coach Jackson when His Airness punched his teammate, Steve Kerr.
Phil Jackson recalls the incident in his book Eleven Rings: A Soul Of Success. Recounting the incident between Jordan and Kerr, Coach Jackson provided the readers his perspective of the altercation,
“A week into camp I was scheduled to do a phone conference with the media…I instructed the other coaches to postpone the scrimmage and give the players some shooting drills until I returned…before I was off the phone our equipment manager, Johnny Ligmanowski, was at my door saying, ‘You’d better come. MJ just punched Steve and he’s in the locker room getting ready to leave practice.’ Kerr and Jordan had gotten into a bit of a scuffle that escalated back and forth until Michael popped Steve in the face and gave him a black eye.”
After the skirmish, Coach Jackson remembered walking into the Bulls locker room where he would find Jordan. While Jordan was just stepping into the shower, Jackson demanded that his star player should apologize to his teammate[Steve Kerr] for his actions. However, MJ refused to oblige. But Jackson would leave Jordan with an ultimatum. “You’d better call Steve and get it straight before tomorrow,” Kerr had said to Jordan, as per his book, before walking out.
Jordan explains his actions against Kerr
Though Jordan would apologize for his actions, there seems to be a specific reason as to why he popped his teammate in the eye. In 2020, we would get an answer for the same, as Jordan would drop his ten-part docu-series, ” The Last Dance” on Netflix. During the show, Jordan would explain that Jackson had been calling ‘ticky-tack’ fouls against him during practice, on that fateful day. Jordan, who wasn’t having any of the ‘soft’ reffing, would choose to respond with aggression. He also believed that the team had to be tougher, and didn’t want his players getting used to easy foul calls. Having reached the end of his patience, Jordan would make an example out of Kerr. Talking about the incident in his Netflix documentary, Jordan recalled,
“The next time he[ Steve Kerr] did it, I just haul off on Kerr. When I foul Steve Kerr, I said, ‘Now, that’s a f**g foul.’… He[ Steve Kerr] hauls off and hits me in the chest, and I just haul off and hit him right in the f**g eye. And Phil just throws me out of practice.”
Jordan would later call Kerr after practice, apologizing to his teammate for his actions. Kerr would be a good sport about the whole incident, as the duo would grow closer after the little skirmish. Things would work out fine for the Bulls, as they would end up winning the Championship that year[ 1995-1996].
