Story Told By NBA Legends: Why You NEVER Poke Michael Jordan

 I don't know if it never happened, but I do know he does take everything personally, and everything that he does, cards, whatever. I was in a room with him for, I don't know, 5 hours one time, the day of a game we play cards, and he wouldn't let us leave. Welcome, sports fans! This is Sky Spino. These guys know me for who?

Why You NEVER Poke Michael Jordan?

I am, and I try to make them understand me for who I am and enjoy just being around and joking around, just being a part of them. Wins again, but we know why he won me. Tom Chambers Ty Corbin and I can't remember

If it was an exhibition game, I can't remember. I'm old; it was an exhibition game, and he would not let us leave, and I'll never forget one of my first exhibition games we played against the Bulls. I mean, literally, we had played the night before travel that day. I was stiff as a boy. He would not if Scottie Pippen was in the room. Horace Grant—I mean, we were just playing this game called TK, okay? And we were just going at it, and now I stood up and could hardly walk, and we were stiff. I called Cotton and said, I can't go. He said, That's okay. I was going to hold you.

Out, Uh, Tom called him up, and I'm sore I can't go. That's okay; I wasn't going to play, and Ty Corbin wouldn't dare do it right. I'm not doing it, and we're playing cards, and people are knocking on Michael's door, and he's in there as an alias anyway, and we're playing cards. Whatever, like this, it was the funniest thing ever, 'cause it was Pippen and Michael and Neie and myself and, I don't know, a few other people. I can't remember exactly who it was. I think maybe Kerr was even there. I can't remember.Um, so Jordan stands up in the room, and he says

You tell that boy Dan Marley. I got something for him tonight, their GM Jerry Krauss, that talked about how much he loved you, and they knew that, and Jordan and Scottie knew that, and the same way they did with Kach in the Olympics, like that you were the guy. Jordan always picked a guy. It's like, That's going to motivate him. The guy did know at the time that he had targeted you. He looked at Tom and me and said, I'm going to give your boy 40 in an exhibition. Yeah, we like who Dan is. Yeah, okay. Oh no, I think it's a badge of honor. 

I mean, he's the greatest player in the world. You got his attention. He's trying to kill me. Yeah, that is a badge of honor, though, when you're the guy, because he had to pick somebody every time to get him motivated. Me against the world, and you were that guy, and Jack Haley was in there, and Jack Haley was trying to make the team, and Michael said, Okay, I'm ordering some drinks or whatever." We all ordered drinks, whatever it was, a beer or whatever.

Q1: What was the context of Jack ordering milk?

Ans: Jack ordered milk in a humorous situation where his friend Michael questioned his choice, suggesting he should drink whiskey instead, especially since they were preparing for a cut.

Q2: What happened the day after Jack ordered milk?

Ans: The following day, someone got hurt, which prevented them from cutting Jack, allowing him to continue with the team for the season.That, and Jack ordered milk, and Michael said, What are you doing? You're going to be getting cut tomorrow, and you're drinking milk? You need a freaking whiskey. You need something.So he literally ordered milk in front of all us guys, and it was the funniest thing ever, and somebody got hurt the next day, so they couldn't cut him, so he actually went through the season with them at that Old Chicago Stadium. Mhm, it was you literally dressed in the basement, and when you go up to the floor, it was like you went up these old, creaky stairs and like these doors.

open, and it was like walking in the old days, like you were a gladiator walking in, and back then people were smoking. There was smoke all in the building; everybody was on top of you. There was no better feeling in the world than going up those stairs and in little arenas like that and playing on that kind of stage. I mean, that's the stuff you miss. 

pick I didn't know if I was going to make the league. I was on a non-g guaranteed contract, and I was just trying to make the roster. I'm trying over there still stiff. I got heat packs under my clothes, man. I'm like, Stiff, this man's out there going crazy. And it doesn't make me feel anyway because he is the greatest player in the world. Were you ever not afraid but nervous that you were going to be embarrassed by guarding somebody in the NBA? No, I looked at mean love guarding Jordan, uh, you know, as when I was with the sons. 

That guy was so great, not only offensively but defensively. If he wanted to score on you, he was going to score on you. If he didn't want to score on you, you weren't scoring. Wow, it was a challenge, and I loved it. I think that was, you know, we were going to get scored on and just tried not to get, you know, as said, embarrassed, and that's why I never said anything to Jordan. My whole philosophy of playing Jordan was to talk golf and ask about how his drives and putts were. That's all I did was like, Hey, Mike, how's the game? What kind of ball you

Playing what clubs he's using, I'm just trying to keep him mellow, so maybe he'll give me 35. Yeah, 'cause if I piss him off, he's going to give me 55, right? So I'm just talking golf, so I didn't know that that was one of his motivations, and now it kind of makes sense. You him on the defensive side, uh, we kept on. Switching, and Tom and I sitting there looking at him like this dude is just insane, and I'm already scared to death, like, God, I hope I don't get into this game; I'm not ready for this, so he had about 34, and he walks over to the bench.

Looks at Tom and I like, Get that money ready.Catches the ball. Michael Jordan gets the ball; he reverse pivots on him, so Dan's got to back up, and he went right, and he turns and goes right around Dan Marley, and he just tries to tear that tongue where he went down, bam! Dunit looks back at our bench and just starts laughing and holding up 400. Nobody knew what the four was, right? And I'm looking like, There's no way in hell I can ever make money now; I really don't want to. I thought, and he went, Man, he dunked for the 40 on.

Everybody and look what ran past. I want my money checked himself out of the game, and so we're looking at the timeout. Cotton called the timeout, and Michael came over at the timeout. He said, Cot, your boys, you were playing cards with me all day. You told on us. That's why y'all are not playing. That's why they're not playing, and bet me too. I told them I was going to give your boy Danam Marley 40, and we were sitting over there, and Cotton turns to Dan, who's a rookie, right, and Cotton looks at Dan and said, Dan, 

what did you do to Michael?"

Messing with him, and then I didn't do anything to him. We fell out laughing. He was just like I said; the guy was unbelievable, and he carried their team. He was that good. I'm telling the best whatever he did was the if he wanted to guard you and not let you score or touch the ball, you weren't touching the ball. The next day, Cotton tried to kill me and Tom, virtually the whole team, in practice because he felt that that's the reason we didn't play. Oh my goodness, so Michael will tell. Oh my goodness, wow, all right.