O’Neal uses his podcast platform to challenge Yahoo! Sports writer who questioned the validity of Jordan’s 1998 Defensive Player of the Year Award after it was alleged his defensive statistics were padded at home.
Boy Tayhoopers (DR)
Michael Jordan never kept his tongue in his pocket, especially when he set foot on a basketball court.
He had also released a violent criticism to the seven-time champion Robert Horry in the middle of the match, as the latter recounted.
It’s hard to find a worse task to accomplish than facing Michael Jordan in the 90s.
At that time, the Bulls’ fullback was simply unplayable on both ends of the court, stringing together Dantesque performances and both individual and collective awards.
. Hello nightmare in short…
Especially since His Airness tortured you not only in the game or with his absolutely legendary trash-talking.
When he played at home in Chicago in particular, all the conditions were met for him… including a little help from the refereeing corps.
Legend of the courts with the Sonics, the former German interior Detlef Schrempf had summed it up like this in 2021, for NBA Europe :
Michael Jordan, the benchmark for referees in the 90s
We always felt like we were at a disadvantage.
If there was an arbitration decision, you always knew it would be in favor of Michael Jordan.
So I said to myself, “Hey, we know we’re not going to have those whistles in our favor, especially in Chicago, so we have to play well to win.” »
And it’s like that everywhere, you know.
And yes, preferential treatment for superstars goes back a long way beyond the era of LeBron James and Stephen Curry.
MJ obviously benefited from this during his basketball career, even if everything was not allowed to him.
Robert Horry also had an anecdote on the subject, the seven-time NBA champion speaking to The Athletic :
I remember Mike made a move on offense and they called a walk on him.
On the other side of the field I made the same move, and they said it was a walk too.
He looked at me and said, “Young man, if they call a walk on me, you can bet they’ll call a walk on you.”
And I looked at him. It was during the game, so you don’t want to smile or laugh at things like that, so I just shook my head and said, “You’re right.”
He was just a competitor. But he was a very good guy, a very good guy.
How do you want to respond to such an implacable observation? It is indeed difficult to contradict His Majesty…
NBA superstars are always allowed some leeway by the referees. But if the referees were going to blow the whistle on Michael Jordan, then clearly no other player in the league was safe from the same treatment.
