The Last Dance: Michael Jordan’s baseball career, LaBradford Smith among 5 things we learned in Episodes 7-8

3. The LaBradford Smith story

In this week’s episodes, the unfortunate tale of LaBradford Smith comes to light thanks to David Aldridge, who recounts how the Washington Bullets shooting guard lit up the Bulls for 37 points on a night where Jordan didn’t shoot well.

After the game, Jordan said Smith told him, “Nice game, Mike,” which apparently was enough for MJ to vow he’d match the poor kid for the same amount by halftime the following night, the second game of Chicago’s back-to-back set against Washington. On the road, Jordan made it his mission to personally torch poor LaBradford Smith, lighting him up for 36 points by halftime and 47 for the game.

“I’ve never seen a man go after another player the way he did,” B.J. Armstrong recalled.

The thing is … Smith’s comments to Mike never happened. Jordan admitted years later that he had made the whole thing up, adding imaginary fuel to his own competitive fire.

“When you play as long as he did, at the level he did, he constructed reasons why to play hard that night,” said Mark Vancil, author of Rare Air. “These little slights were deep indignations to him. That’s all he needs. That’s like throwing meat to a tiger. He’d find a game to keep him interested, but it was all in his mind.”