Horace Grant Tells The Story About When Michael Jordan Punched Will Perdue
(CBS) It's well-known that Bulls legend Michael Jordan had a competitive rage that would sometimes turn really nasty.
On Tuesday, we heard another story about just such an occurrence. During an interview with HOT97 in New York, former Bulls forward Horace Grant recalled a practice in which Jordan punched center Will Perdue. This news doesn't come as a surprise, as Steve Kerr has previously said Jordan punched him, while Jordan and Bill Cartwright were known to have problems as well.
The kicker was that no one could ever retaliate against Jordan.
The story from Grant, via nocoastbias.com:
"Our practices were so intense because Phil (Jackson), the mastermind behind everything, would put MJ on the second team," Grant said. "Me and Scottie would be on the first team, and being competitive like he was, man, unreal, unreal. Of course punches got thrown, many fights. I'm just so happy that social media wasn't (around) back then.
"I hate to tell the story, but Will and I are still good friends … Typical Phil (Jackson), we run this play and Will set an illegal pick on MJ, and MJ said, 'Will, don't do that again.' 'What you talking about,' that's Will. MJ says all right; Phil says run it again. So naturally we run it two more times, illegal pick. MJ walks up to Will — boom. Lit him up. It was over; we grabbed Will — you're not going to hurt MJ. MJ can take care of himself. So the next day on the plane, Will gets on with this huge shiner."
Grant didn't specify what year this story took place in, but the pre-championship days were certainly rocky times for the talented Bulls. Everyone clashed with general manager Jerry Krause, Jordan didn't believe his teammates were good enough to win a title and there was early pushback against Phil Jackson's triangle offense.
Of course, it all worked out, as starting in 1991, Chicago won six titles in eight years.