Michael Jordan rarely keeps his tongue in his pocket, especially when it comes to posting players they don’t like. Years ago, he notably beat a rival at the post for his dirty side on the floors, claiming that everyone thought like him. And he was certainly right!
We saw this again recently with the huge brawl involving Killian Hayes, NBA players always tend to go overboard on the field. But with the NBA having gone out of its way to clean up the game in the public eye, there are far fewer such heated altercations than in the past, especially during the 80s and 90s. lived these decades on the floors, can say something about it…
Because His Airness faced a crowd of extremely rough basketball players during his career, who did not hesitate to let go of huge fouls as long as it allowed their team to win. Asked about the players who he said were the dirtiest in the league in 1990, the six-time champion did not take long before displaying Bill Laimbeer, his former opponent in Detroit. But he also took the opportunity to place one concerning a certain Larry Bird:
Michael Jordan cash on Larry Bird and Bill Laimbeer
If you had 273 professional athletes, professional basketball players, and you asked who the dirtiest player in the NBA is, 95% would say it’s Laimbeer or Larry Bird. Laimbeer is dirty because he doesn’t jump well, he can’t block shots. If we were on the counter-attack, he wouldn’t succeed. To see him rush at me at full speed, it’s just to knock me down, throw me off balance. I already said he couldn’t block my shot. That’s the kind of stuff he does, and people don’t like him because we know he can’t block shots.
Larry is good at playing you slowly, but all of a sudden he’s going to grab you by the pants to get an open layup, or a three-point shot. Clever. It’s not really cheating, but it’s smart. He overcomes a lot of things regarding natural abilities that he doesn’t have. He’s not the fastest, he can’t jump, but he overcomes that very well.
It’s nothing new, Laimbeer has been considered the dirtiest player in history for ages. Spearheading the defense of the Bad Boys in the 80s, he then alienated almost the entire league. To the point where despite his CV (two champion rings), he should never be able to enter the Hall of Fame… He had not only fought with MJ, therefore, but also with Larry Legend as during this altercation that became legendary:
Let’s all watch Larry Bird fight the fucking Detroit Pistons for a minute.
— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) December 16, 2022
Bill Laimbeer was renowned for stopping at nothing to harm his opponents, and it’s certainly not Michael Jordan who will say otherwise. As for Larry Bird, if he wasn’t as violent as his opponent at the Pistons, he wasn’t an altar boy either!
