NBA legend Michael Jordan was a demanding teammate, so much so that he occasionally refused to pass the ball to certain teammates if he felt they weren’t ready.
Chicago Bulls head coach Phil Jackson didn’t always agree with Jordan’s reasoning and he wasn’t afraid to call out his superstar.
During the Bulls’ second three-peat, Jordan declined to pass the ball to Luc Longley despite the natural flow of the offense dictating that the pass be made in a particular game. Jackson called timeout and told Jordan to pass to Longley.
However, Jordan didn’t listen to his coach.
Former Bulls center Bill Wennington wrote an autobiography, “Tales From the Bulls Hardwood,” in 2004. In the book, he discussed a game where Jordan didn’t pass the ball to Longley despite the big man being open.
When Jackson called timeout and instructed Jordan to give the ball to Longley, MJ refused because Longley missed two of his passes.
At a meeting in practice the next day, Jackson once again told Jordan to pass the ball to Longley when the offense’s triggers and actions required it. That’s when Longley and Jordan shared an interesting exchange.
“Michael,” Wennington recalls Longley saying, via Jack M. Silverstein of Substack. “I am trying my hardest.” When Jordan heard Longley say that, he said, “Luc, you are not. You are not catching the ball. If I pass you the ball, you have to catch the ball.”
Jordan was tough on Longley because he wanted the Melbourne, Australia, native to understand what it took to play at a championship level. Although Longley certainly must have found Jordan difficult at times, the duo had tremendous success together.
Jordan and Longley helped the Bulls win three straight NBA titles in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Jordan averaged 29.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists during that stretch, while Longley put up 9.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
The Bulls defeated the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1996 NBA Finals and the Utah Jazz in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals. Jordan won all three Finals MVPs and finished his legendary career with six titles and six Finals MVPs.
Meanwhile, Longley played a significant role in the Bulls’ second three-peat. He was a skilled shooter for a seven-footer and played solid defense in the paint. In April 1998, Jordan called Longley the Bulls’ big stabilizer in the middle.
Jordan never punched Longley as he did Will Perdue and Steve Kerr. However, MJ constantly challenged Longley in practices and games until he was satisfied. That leadership style didn’t always sit right with Longley, who discussed it at the end of part 1 of his documentary, “One Giant Leap.”
Jordan and Longley are friends and keep in touch to this day. However, Longley admitted that he didn’t always love Jordan as a teammate.
“I didn’t love MJ,” Longley said. “I thought MJ was difficult and unnecessarily harsh on his teammates and probably on himself, and I think, you know, I just didn’t enjoy being around him that much, and that was cool. It was cool with MJ, and it was cool with me. At the end of the day, we found a way to respect each other on the court and to co-exist, and that was cool.”
Without Jordan, Longley wouldn’t have won three NBA championships. He also likely wouldn’t have his current level of fame either.
Jordan essentially made everyone on the Bulls championship teams famous in some capacity. Because of Jordan’s competitiveness, Chicago became one of the top dynasties in NBA history.
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