Michael Jordan didn't like Phil Jackson at first: 'He was coming in to take the ball out of my hands'

Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan wasn't happy when the Bulls fired Doug Collins as head coach in 1989. Collins had helped the Bulls make three straight playoff appearances and year after year, Chicago finished better in the postseason.

But more than Doug's firing, MJ frowned at the man GM Jerry Krause appointed to take over Collins' old job. Phil Jackson was already an assistant for the Bulls at that time. But more than Doug's style, Jackson advocated fellow assistant Tex Winter's triangle offense, which preached ball movement and passing. Because of that, Mike wasn't too thrilled.

"I wasn't a Phil Jackson fan when he first came in because he was coming in to take the ball out of my hands. Doug put the ball in my hands," Jordan said.

MJ thought he would lose touches with the triangle

Jordan and Collins were close, primarily because Doug trusted Michael with the ball more than anybody ever did. As a result, MJ recorded three of his best five Player Efficiency Rating (PER) seasons during Collins' tenure as head coach, including his career-best 31.7 in 1987-88 which is considered by many as one of the most dominant ever.

Meanwhile, Jordan initially thought that the triangle offense was going to rob him of that dominance because of its basic principles. MJ was a maniacal star who trusted none of his teammates with the last shot.

"Everybody has the opportunity to touch the ball," added Jordan. "But I didn't want Bill Cartwright to have the ball with five seconds left. That's not an equal opportunity offense; that's fu**ing bulls**t."

Jordan also questioned Tex Winter

MJ didn't just hate Phil at first, he also cast his doubt on Winter. Tex had three decades of college basketball coaching experience but he made the Final Four only four times and never won March Madness.

"What has Tex ever won, anyway?" Jordan said via the book Jumpman: The Making and Meaning of Michael Jordan. "The players today can do things they couldn't twenty years ago. The game isn't played anymore like Tex Winter taught it. His concepts don't work against bigger, faster players who jump higher."

In the end, though, Phil and Tex won over Mike and proved his reservations wrong. With the triangle system, the Bulls won six NBA championships during an eight-year span from 1991 to 1998, with Mike winning Finals MVP honors in each of their six title conquests. MJ also won four league MVP trophies while running PJ's triangle system.