“Fortune favors the bold.” This has been quite true for the Detroit Pistons Bad Boy. The legend hilariously took quite an intriguing path to maintain his millionaire status. Yes, indeed: the former NBA player went as far as to disrespect his former teammate Michael Jordan to trick the media.
In the latest episode of Stacey King’s Gimme The Hot Sauce podcast, John Salley shared the story with the listeners. Let’s find out more about the story.
John Salley talks about the real reason for disrespecting Michael Jordan
John Salley is certainly one of the funniest players in the league. This story has to be the funniest of all of them. During the conversation, he revealed that he has huge respect for the Chicago Bulls legend’s legacy. “I love Michael and I like Michael so much that my television career I said oh he’s not the greatest of all time,” said Salley. However, he intentionally disrespected Jordan so that he could attract global attention.
The 4x NBA champion revealed, “The reason I would say that is I knew that I was going to be all over the news.” Furthermore, he even revealed his reason to the Bull’s champion when he asked him about it. He added, “MJ was like why are you doing that I go well this if everybody says you’re the Messiah…you can’t do it somebody has to say something and I just would hold on to it; I would play with it he knew I would say.”
Back in 1996, Salley had spent enough time with the Chicago Bulls to understand Jordan’s greatness and why his teammates supported him.
John Salley reveals a lesser-known detail about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls
During an episode of All the Smoke podcast, Salley shared another captivating story about the Chicago Bulls. Intriguingly, every detail in the franchise was made exclusively for MJ. Speaking of his experience in the Chicago Bulls, Salley shared, “They had a special private jet, they had that MGM jet that had the TV screen and the big leather seats and the tables and it was just like a lounge.” He added, “This was the most gangster thing because I pay attention to everything.”
But perhaps, Salley isn’t the only one. Former head coach Phil Jackson also knew about this. Salley also revealed how the 6x champion even had a special privilege that allowed him to smoke cigars on the bus.