Michael Jordan Ridiculed Teammates Until They Got On The Same Level As Him And Bulls Players Became Scared Of Him: ‘We Were His Teammates And We Were Afraid Of Him’

NBA icon Michael Jordan ridiculed teammates until they got on the same level as him. 

And if you didn’t get on the same level as Jordan, he would make your life miserable. 

“My mentality was to go out and win at any cost,” Jordan said in The Last Dance. “If you don’t wanna live that regimented mentality, then you don’t need to be alongside me because I’m gonna ridicule you until you get on the same level as me. And if you don’t get on the same level then it’s gonna be hell for you.”

Jordan was so intimidating that his Chicago Bulls teammates were afraid of him. 

“People were afraid of him,” Jud Buechler said. “We were his teammates and we were afraid of him. There was just fear. The fear factor of MJ was so, so thick.”

Jordan crossed the line several times. He punched Will Perdue and Steve Kerr and told teammates not to pass the ball to Bill Cartwright in crunch time. 

However, Jordan’s fiery leadership style worked, as the Bulls won six championships, went undefeated in the NBA Finals and three-peated twice in the ’90s. 

“I pulled people along when they didn’t wanna be pulled,” Jordan said. “I challenged people when they didn’t wanna be challenged and I earned that right because my teammates came after me. They didn’t endure all the things that I endured. Once you join the team, you live at a certain standard that I play the game and I wasn’t gonna take anything less.

“Now, if that means I had to go in and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that. You ask all my teammates, the one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn’t f—ing do. When people see this, they gonna say, ‘Well, he wasn’t really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.’ Well, that’s you because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well. Look, I don’t have to do this. I’m only doing it because it is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t wanna play that way, don’t play that way.”

Jordan got emotional while saying that last line in “The Last Dance.” He cried and asked the camera crew for a “break.”

With the Bulls, Jordan won six championships, six Finals MVPs, five regular-season MVPs, 10 scoring titles, three steals titles and one Defensive Player of the Year Award. He’s arguably the best player in NBA history. 

Jordan has career averages of 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks with the Bulls and Washington Wizards. He’s first in NBA history in points per game, fourth in steals, fifth in field goals and second in player efficiency rating.