Michael Jordan got ‘mad’ at Hall of Fame writer for reporting he had kid out of wedlock: ‘He told me not to write it and I wrote it’

NBA icon Michael Jordan got “mad” at Hall of Fame basketball writer Jack McCallum for reporting that he had a kid out of wedlock. 

This happened in the late ’80s. 

“I was doing a story on him during the course of the story, we’re at this place, this was in the late ‘80s, and he brings down a child, a kid,” McCallum told NBA writer Sam Yip of HoopsHype. “And I didn’t know he had a kid – and nobody had written it – I’m holding the baby and I’m talking about my own sons and everything like that. I go to the game that night, and the PR person says, ‘Hey, Michael expects that you won’t write about his child.’ And I said well, ‘I was holding this child, I wasn’t gonna keep him in a closet.’

“I just felt that he was sort of putting me in too bad of a position to show me that kid and then say, ‘Hey, you can’t write’, and I didn’t care they had a kid out of wedlock. It wasn’t a moral thing with me, it was just kind of reporting detail. He told me not to write it and I wrote it and he got very mad, but I think what happens, what that speaks to mostly is the difference in the eras that’s going on. That these were the biggest stars in the world, not just the sport, but the world. And they understood all of them. I had relationships with some that were better than others, but they seem to understand that it was part of the yin and yang. That there was good stuff and there was bad stuff, and that you had to write some of the bad stuff and they might get bad for a minute, but then life would go on. I think you guys who are covering things now, I think you have it harder than we did. That’s my guess, right?”

Jordan has five kids. Three of them came with his first wife and two are with his current wife. 

Arguably the top player in NBA history, Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. He won five MVPs, six rings, six Finals MVPs, one Defensive Player of the Year Award, three steals titles and 10 scoring titles with the Bulls. 

Jordan averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists with the Bulls and Wizards. He’s first in NBA history in points per game in the regular season and playoffs.