Michael Jordan was a different beast during the prime of his career. On the court, apart from his basketball skills, MJ had another amazing ability. The ability to trash talk opponents and simply get inside their heads.
He is hailed as one of the best trash talkers in the history of the NBA and rightfully so. Additionally, he backed his talking with astounding performances throughout his career.
NBA Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins once shared a story about MJ's trash-talking and obviously Jordan kept his word.
" We're in a suit & tie, just walked into the locker room. MJ walks into our locker room.. He walks by me, he walks by Kevin. When he gets to Randy Wittman he said 'Lace 'em up - it's gonna be a long f*****g night.' I didn't know what to say, I was shocked. He had 60 that night."
The match Wilkins is talking about happened in the 1986-87 NBA season. During that time, Jordan was already an established superstar in the league. Although he was yet to find success in the postseason, Mike was already a beast in the regular season.
As Wilkins revealed, Jordan dropped 61 points in that game. Despite that, he ended up on the losing side. After the dust settled the score of 117-114 was in favor of the Atlanta Hawks.
While Michael might have lost the game, he most definitely won the individual battle. At the time, it was already obvious that he would dominate the league for years to come.
It took him until 1991 to win the first NBA championship of his career. Once he got the taste of winning, Mike never looked back for the next decade or so of his career. He then proceeded to win a total of six NBA championships in his career, while remaining undefeated in the finals.
His stint with the Bulls came to an end in 1998, when he retired for the second time in his career. Although he did play for the Wizards for two seasons, later on, his time with the franchise was riddled with injuries and he couldn't replicate the same success as his glory days with the Bulls.
More must-reads: