Michael Jordan Went Into Hawks Locker Room And Told Randy Wittman ‘Lace ‘Em Up, It’s Gonna Be A Long Night’ Before Scoring 60 Points: ‘He Was A Killer, He Wanted To Take Your Heart Out’

NBA legend Michael Jordan once went into the Atlanta Hawks locker room and told Randy Wittman “lace ’em up, it’s gonna be a long night” before scoring 60 points for the Chicago Bulls. 

Hawks icon Dominique Wilkins told the story back in 2019. 

“I remember Michael Jordan walks into our locker room, suit and tie,” Wilkins said. “I’m like, ‘What in the hell is he doing in our locker room? Is he coming to the training room? What’s going on?’ So he walks by me. When he gets to Randy Wittman, he said, ‘Lace ’em up, it’s gonna be a long night.’ I’m like, ‘Did he just come in our locker room?’ I didn’t know what to say. I was shocked. He had 60 that night. He had 60 points that night. … He was a killer. He wanted to take your heart out.”

Jordan is universally recognized as the best player in NBA history. He averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks with the Bulls and Washington Wizards and won five MVPs, one Defensive Player of the Year Award, six championships, six Finals MVPs, three steals titles and 10 scoring titles. 

A Hall of Famer, Jordan is first in NBA history in points per game, fourth in steals, fifth in field goals and second in player efficiency rating. He holds the NBA record for most points (63) scored in a playoff game. 

“I pulled people along when they didn’t wanna be pulled,” Jordan said in The Last Dance documentary. “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.”

Sure, Jordan may have been harsh on his teammates when they made mistakes, but his leadership style worked. The Bulls won six championships, three-peated twice and went undefeated in the NBA Finals in the Jordan era.