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“Who’s Your Daddy”: Michael Jordan’s Son Opens Up About Using Kobe Bryant’s Mentality to Cope With High School Bullying

Siddid Dey Purkayastha
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"Who's Your Daddy": Michael Jordan's Son Opens Up About Using Kobe Bryant's Mentality to Cope With High School Bullying

Jeffrey Jordan, Michael Jordan’s eldest son, opened up about facing bullying in high school in Alex Molden’s The Shark Effect show. Like his father, Jeffrey was expected to be carrying Michael Jordan’s glorious legacy in basketball. However, during his high-school playing career, Jeffrey had to face several hindrances such as bullying. To cope with that, he turned the “Who’s your daddy” chant into a factor motivating him against hate and criticism. Jeffrey seems to have taken motivation from Kobe Bryant, who used to feel unscathed by any hate or criticism that he faced. He turned such hate into fuel for motivation, which clearly translated into his performance on the court.

Kobe Bryant knew very well how to embrace hate and reply to the critics with his incredible performance. Calling this the ‘Mamba attitude,’ Kobe made a mark for himself through this, to establish himself as one of the greatest players. Jeffrey, being Michael Jordan’s son, was indeed decent in playing high-school basketball. He embraced such a similar attitude as the Mamba to bring several accolades and achievements to his alma mater.

Michael Jordan’s son Jeffrey admitted to facing bullying in high school while playing basketball

MJ’s son Jeffrey Jordan recently appeared on a podcast episode of The Shark Effect show, hosted by Alex Molden. Speaking about high-school crowds, both Molden and Jeffrey agreed that teenagers can be ruthless and scathing, especially in high-school basketball.

 

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Jeffrey always had the burden of carrying his father’s legacy in basketball. Due to his father’s legendary status, many rival school fans would mock him with the chant “Who’s your daddy.”  Facing such bullying, Jeffrey decided to embrace these chants and the hateful remarks. Speaking to Alex Molden, he said:

“I definitely got a lot of ‘Who’s your daddy?’ chants at high school,” Jordan said. “Everywhere I went, they started chanting ‘Who’s your daddy?’ I’m like, you know, I just started embracing it.”

In all honesty, it is tough to lead an easy life when your father is the legend Michael Jordan. Jeffrey and Marcus both had underwhelming basketball stints at college and high school when compared to his father. While Jeffrey did enroll for the NBA draft, unfortunately, he was undrafted into the league.

Michael Jordan’s sons could never achieve the same level of success and LeBron James’ sons

Compared to Bronny and Bryce James, Jeffrey, and Marcus Jordan had a rather underwhelming basketball career in college and school. Perhaps, Jeffrey had it the worst given his college-level performance was considered rather disastrous. In the 2012 NBA draft, Jeffrey went undrafted, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Marcus, on the other hand, was playing decent enough to earn him a place in the NBA draft. However, midway through college, Marcus decided not to pursue a career in basketball. Both the Jordan brothers now run their own businesses, with Jeffrey being in charge of Heir Jordan, while Marcus runs a luxury sneaker boutique called the Trophy Room.

About the author

Siddid Dey Purkayastha

Siddid Dey Purkayastha

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Siddid Dey Purkayastha is an NBA Journalist at SportsRush, covering the sports for two years. He has always been a lover of sports and considers basketball as his favorite. While he has more than 600 articles under his belt, Siddid specializes in CoreSport pieces with on-point game analysis. He is an ardent fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, since Kobe Bryant's 80-point game made him a fan of the franchise. Apart from basketball, Siddid occasionally watches soccer and takes a fancy in following up with the Premier League in his free time.

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