The ESPN documentary “The Last Dance” continues to reveal the interworkings of the Chicago Bulls dynasty, which ruled the NBA during the 1990s. However, on the episode that premiered on Sunday, May 10, 2020, the film revealed how Michael Jordan would push his teammates with the goal of making them perform better.
Jordan led the Bulls to six championships, but his tactics to inspire teammates could have been viewed as bullying by some. For instance, Jordan often called teammate Scotty Burrell derogatory names during practice, he once punched Steve Kerr in the nose during an intense scrimmage, and he would not allow Horace Grant to eat on the team bus or plane if he had a bad game.
During an episode of “Undisputed,” former NFL player and host Shannon Sharpe revealed that Grant had an issue with Jordan’s style of motivation.
“Horace told me, ‘If you didn’t confront Mike, he would ride you every day, all day, all the time. You had to stand up for yourself. I didn’t have a problem with Mike the player. I had a problem with how he tried to motivate me,'” Sharpe said.
Sharpe also said that he would have gotten into a fight with Jordan if he was on the Bulls team and the star player forced him to remain hungry after a game.
“I would’ve whipped Mike’s a–,” Sharpe said to co-host Skip Bayless. “For you to tell someone not to feed me because you don’t think I had a good game, … we gon’ fight every day until I beat Mike. This is not about a basketball game. … Mike might whip me, but I gonna make it so difficult, he would never want to fight me again.”
Hear the rest of what Sharpe had to say here:
"For you to tell someone not to feed me because you don't think I had a good game, we're going to fight every day until I beat him. You don't have to respect me but you aren't going to disrespect me."@ShannonSharpe on MJ taking away postgame meals from Horace Grant pic.twitter.com/nVpJ9hRjsv
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) May 7, 2020
During the documentary, while speaking about his tactics and being harsh on his teammates, Jordan responded: “You ask all my teammates, the one thing about Michael Jordan was, ‘he never asked me to do something that he didn’t do.'”
