Darrick Martin recounts the story of how trash talking Michael Jordan went woefully wrong for him and his Grizzlies team in 1995-96.
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The 1995-96 season remains the most dominant year by a basketball team in NBA history. After going 72-10 through the regular season, the Bulls went through the Eastern Conference dropping only 1 game. They finished the postseason with a 15-3 record – 2 of the losses came to the Sonics.
Such was MJ’s dominance in his first full year back that he was a landslide MVP for the 4th time in his career. Jordan and the Bulls were on a whole other level defensively. By adding Toni Kukoc to the mix, they’d already obtained a really potent offensive repertoire as well.
Michael Jordan scored 19 points in 6 minutes against the Vancouver Grizzlies
One thing that will perennially remain true for all times to come is this: you simply do not challenge Michael Jordan. Darrick Martin of the Vancouver Grizzlies found this out the hard way after a game against the dominant Bulls. Antonio Harvey recounted the incident:
“Mike was 4 for 16 from the field, he was having a really rough night. There’s about 10 minutes to go in the game and we’re winning. Then Darrick decides to say to Michael Jordan on his off night ‘Hey Mike, your f***ing shot is not falling tonight!’; ‘You’re having an off night, Mike!'”
“24 points in the last 10 minutes. His last jumpshot – he catches the ball in the post, he does a typical Jordan fadeaway. He’s fading away towards our bench. He knocks down the shot, turns to the bench and says ‘Shut up you little b****es’. True story.”
Still an expansion team at the time, the Grizzlies did not make the playoffs for a long time until the advent of Pau Gasol. Jordan and his Bulls, meanwhile, won their trophies 4,5 and 6 of the 90s. It became a ritual watching them beat down on teams every year in the playoffs.
