We have a lot of stories of us trying to secretly record players and/or events over the years and none of them can top sitting next to and secretly recording Michael Jordan during the 72-10 Bulls season. That's the story Adam Kontras can tell and in 2010, he uploaded his 15-minute story (a video edited with two VCRS - a practice I had plenty of back in the mid 90s) to YouTube. It was a great story that went unnoticed until reddit user WhenMachinesCry came across the gem five year later.
The whole video is heaven for fans of his Airness, but the most memorable part happens around the eight minute mark, when the narrator talks about a heckler who was mocking MJ for only having six points in the first half, then telling him he should go back to his old shoes so he would play better. Funny thing about those shoes is the ones he was wearing were the hugely popular Air Jordan XI, which are often considered one of the best -- as opposed to the Air Jordan X shoes from MJ's comeback season and the ones that exploded on Tony Wroten.
Jordan being Jordan with the same Jordan shoes, scored 23 points in the second half and when he took a seat on the bench, he looked over at the fan, pointed at him, and shushed him the way he's shushed so many players in the past that made the mistake of "calling out the devil" as Kendall Gill would say.
This story reminds me of the amusing story Reggie Miller told Jimmy Kimmel about "talking trash to Black Jesus" when Jordan only had four points at halftime.
“I’m a wide eyed energetic rookie, and we’re playing this exhibition game and Michael’s going through the motion. Chuck Person, who’s on my team, who’s a trash talker as well, is like, ‘can you believe Michael Jordan, the guy everyone’s talking about, the guy who’s supposed to be able to walk on water, and you’re out here killing him Reg’, and this was in the first half, ‘he’s like you should be talking to him’.
“I was like, you know what, you’re right; ‘Michael, who do you think you are? The great Michael Jordan? That’s right, there’s a new kid in town’
“He kind of looks at me and starts shaking his head. So at half, I have 10 and he has 4 points right. I’m doing all this talking, he’s like ok. End of the game, in the second half, he ended up with 44 and I ended up with 12. So he outscored me 40-2!
“And as he’s walking off he’s like ‘Be sure and be careful you never talk to Black Jesus again”.
Back to 1995/96, so how did MJ do that year playing in those Jordan XI sneakers? How about averages of 30.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 2.2 steals while leading the Bulls to the best NBA record of all-time and racking up these honors.
- NBA Most Valuable Player
- NBA Finals Most Valuable Player
- All-NBA First Team
- NBA All-Defensive First Team
- NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (this should have went to Shaq)
- NBA All-Star Starter
BONUS STORY: JIMMY JACKSON AND HIS SHOES
The story takes place during Jimmy Jackson’s temporary stop with the Nets (he’s played for 12 different teams) in 97. It’s the final game between them and the future championship Bulls and just 2 weeks after the Nets came away with a 1 point victory over MJ, who scored 36 points, and the Bulls in New Jersey. Jackson is off to a hot start and has 20+ points on MJ in the first half and starts to talk trash with the GOAT of trash-talking. Jordan responds by saying “You know, you’re talking a lot of stuff to have my shoes on.”
Damn....and nice Gatorade towel JJ.
