Michael Jordan Always Wanted To ‘Embarrass’ His Opponent And Never Felt Bad For Running Up The Score: ‘He Was Like One Of Those Football Coaches Who Want To Win 92-0’

NBA legend Michael Jordan wanted to “embarrass” his opponent, so much so that he never felt bad for running up the score. 

Hall of Fame writer Sam Smith, who covered Jordan, told Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype in 2020 that Jordan had “incredible manic competitiveness.”

“As we’ve seen witnessed in this documentary and which we knew, he has this incredible manic competitiveness to the level that he wants to embarrass his opponent,” Smith said. “A lot of players feel sorry for their opponent when they’re dominating; Jordan never did. He wanted to run it up. He was like one of those southern college football coaches who want to win 92-0. That’s his mentality.”

With the Chicago 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.

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 in The Last Dance. “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.”

“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.”