Former Washington Wizards great and jeans enthusiast Michael Jordan is known as a competitive person. You don’t reach the pinnacle of your profession without that character trait and Magic Johnson shed some light on it during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Johnson and Jordan were members of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team that featured the likes of Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler and, a supporting star in this story, David Robinson. The team was having East vs. West scrimmages when, one day, Magic had an idea.
“I never talked trash but one time in my life. So, we’re with the dream team and, for three days in a row, we had came into a tie. What coach (Chuck) Daly did was split the team into East vs. West. Barkley, Jordan, Larry Bird, Pippen and Patrick Ewing played in the East. We had the West guys, myself, David Robinson, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Drexler and John Stockton. So we would play every day. Tie.
So this is the fourth day and we got out on them about 12-2. I said, ‘I’m going to really rattle his chain.’ So I went over there and tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Hey, man. If you don’t turn into Air Jordan, we’re going to blow you out today.'”
The story is a lesson in why trash talk doesn’t work on some people. The worst part is poor Robinson becomes the true victim of Magic trash-talking in a scrimmage.
Magic also tells a story involving Prince where he claims the artist didn’t have a jump shot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goC1vwOGT5A
Johnson claims he could beat Candace Parker 1-on-1 when that is in no way true, so Prince probably rained 3s down on Magic.
