Rod Strickland firmly debunks the story that Michael Jordan walked into the Bullets locker room during a Playoff game and trash-talked them.
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Michael Jordan and his trash-talking escapades are the stuff of legend. He’s done everything from call Muggsy Bogues a rather unflattering term regarding his height to talk trash to the President at the time, Bill Clinton while on the golf course together.
Of course, when it comes to NBA hardwood there are only a few players such as Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and Gary Payton who rival Michael Jordan in the trash talking department. One story that has perpetuated throughout NBA media for years now is what MJ did during a Playoff series against the Washington Bullets in 1997.
In a first round series between the defending champ Bulls and the challenging Bullets, ‘His Airness’ lit up the DC based squad for 55 points in Game 2. Seems as though Game 2s in the first round are MJ’s specialty.
However, the aforementioned story revolving around this game, in short, is that Jordan walked into the Bullets locker room to ask them who was checking him that night.
Rod Strickland on the Michael Jordan story being merely a fable.
Rod Strickland, who was on that Bullets team, took to Twitter earlier today to debunk this entire story, saying that it never happened and insinuating that Michael Jordan never came into their locker room with a cigar to ask that question.
Sorry, but that’s not true.🤷🏽♂️ https://t.co/S7iGPefdFd
— Rod Strickland (@rod_strickland) April 27, 2022
There are several inconsistencies here and none of them have been backed up another source. The inconsistencies lie with the fact that there are many versions of this story.
Chris Webber himself has stated two versions of it; one where Jordan is near his Ferrari smoking a cigar and asking them who’s checking him that night and the other with that same question being asked but in the Bullets locker room.
Taking Webber’s word is tough as he also said they lost that series by a collective 7 points when in reality they lost it by 18 points, with Game 1 being a 12-point loss.
Michael Jordan himself has never opened up about this ‘incident’ so we would have to wait for his word on the matter, if he were to ever speak to the media again.