Michael Jordan used to be a quiet retired superstar, but he’s making noise that we all can’t stop listening to — like trolling Phil Jackson.
Michael Jordan has had two legendary head coaches in his career who will forever be associated with his success. But when it comes to who gets credit for the success and who rode coattails, MJ wants there to be a distinct difference between Dean Smith and Phil Jackson.
The former Tar Heels and Bulls legend answered just about every question you could think of at the 20th anniversary of his Michael Jordan Flight School and the answers were even more glorious than we could have hoped for.
One of the best answers came after Jordan was asked about Dean Smith, his coach at North Carolina, and Phil Jackson, his coach in Chicago.
"“Fortunately Dean Smith helped me become the basketball player I am today. Phil’s lucky because I was taught the game by Dean Smith.”"
MJ may have taken a step back with the younger generation of NBA fan, but his troll game — and hatred for Phil Jackson and the Bulls executives he feels might have done him wrong — still burns hot. Sure, he’s in his 50s and far gone from his prime, but that was vintage MJ right there and it was glorious.
That’s both a troll and probably something very true. As we’re seeing in New York, when the pieces aren’t in place for Phil Jackson the growing pains are much greater. He had MJ in Chicago and both Shaq and Kobe in Los Angeles — which are both teams that just about anybody could coach.
Of course, that’s not to say Jackson isn’t a legendary coach. You don’t win the number of titles he has without being able to coach. But MJ isn’t incorrect in his assertion that Jackson might have had less to do with Jordan’s development as a legend so much as he had to do with being able to coach the right situation.