When ESPN aired “The Last Dance” documentary about Michael Jordan last year, a new meme was born out of Jordan’s highly competitive nature when he would talk about a slight toward him and say, “and I took that personally.”
Well, we have another instance to add to the list of times Jordan “took it personally.”
ESPN’s Marc J. Spears recalled an anecdote of Jordan in The Undefeated’s “Hoop Stories” in which the Bulls legend was invited back to the University of North Carolina by head coach Dean Smith to meet the team.
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The UNC team had such stars like Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter and they lined up as Jordan went one-by-one shaking everyone’s hand asking the same thing, “what’s your name?”
One of the players, Makhtar N’Diaye — a 6-foot-8 forward from Senegal — went to the end of the line to be the last one Jordan would greet. When Jordan got to him, N’Diaye replied, “Well, my name is Makhtar N’Diaye, what’s your name?”
“Jordan kinda looks confused,” Spears said. “He said, ‘Michael.’”
N’Diaye and Jordan continue to talk, with Jordan asking where he’s from.
“’Yeah, they don’t show much basketball in Africa,’” Spears said, quoting Jordan. “Makhtar, as Michael Jordan is walking away, says, ‘By the way, Hakeem Olajuwon is the greatest basketball player of all time.’
“Michael Jordan looks at him, looks a little upset and just rushes out the room. About 10 minutes later Jordan comes back in practice gear to play. He tells Dean Smith give me the worst guys and I’m playing with the worst guys against your stars.
Naturally, Jordan destroyed the first team and second team while playing with three walk-ons.
“Jordan was just trying to dunk on Makhtar the whole time,” Spears said. “He did what he needed to do. And then left.”
But the story does not end there.
A few years later at the Super Bowl in Miami, N’Diaye and Jamison were trying to get into an exclusive club but were not allowed in. As they were trying to figure out what to do, Jordan walked out onto the balcony above them.
Spears says that N’Diaye saw him and began yelling “Mike, Mike, Mike can you help us get in?”
To which Jordan replied, “Oh, now you remember my name, Africa?” before walking back into the club without helping them out.
Yep, he took it personally.
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