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Haslem says MJ crossed the line with fighting words
Their NBA paths never crossed, with Michael Jordan leaving the NBA as Udonis Haslem arrived.
But as he watches The Last Dance, ESPN’s Jordan documentary, Haslem says that might in one regard, have been for the best.
Because when it comes to an element of Jordan’s well-chronicled challenges of teammates, the long-time Miami Heat captain said there would have been an issue.
A guest on an ESPN Instagram Live session hosted by former NBA forward Richard Jefferson, Haslem said that he would have drawn a locker-room line even with a player as iconic as Jordan.
Haslem noted there might have been umbrage with the tact Jordan used to push his Chicago Bulls teammates, with Haslem also appreciating the need to motivate during championship runs.
“A lot of times, you’re going to push people the way they don’t want to be pushed, or push people to a level that they don’t want to be pushed to,” Haslem said. “They don’t really understand what it takes to be a champion if they’ve never been there. So I can understand Jordan from that aspect of things.
“One thing I do know as a captain and as a leader is that everybody is motivated differently. You know what I’m saying? You’ve got to learn how to approach people, you’ve got to learn how to deal with people.”
Haslem said cussing out teammates, especially with certain words, was something he took note of while watching the documentary, which concludes with the final two episodes on Sunday.
“Michael Jordan’s approach might not necessarily have been my approach on certain things.” Haslem said, drawing laughter from Jefferson. “It was some name calling in there. I’m just saying, if I’m one of them people and Michael talks to me like that, I might put hands on Michael. I might put hands on Michael. And I love Michael.
“Michael, you’re the greatest all of all time. But you can’t call me the B-word, the H-word.”
That’s when Jefferson interjected that Jordan knew which buttons he could push and when, with Haslem acknowledging similar moments with Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James during the Heat’s runs to NBA championships in 2006, ’12 and ’13.
“I’ve exchanged words with Dwyane. I’ve exchanged words with Shaq. I’ve exchanged words with ‘Bron,” Haslem said. “You know, when you’re fighting for a championship, things happens, things come out, emotions overflow.
“But we’d never do the name calling. We don’t do the name calling. That’s where we draw the line, with the name calling.”
Haslem, though, said there is no denying Jordan’s swagger, marveling at one scene that showed Jordan with cigar in hand in the Bulls’ locker room, while toying with a baseball bat.
“He had a lit cigar in his hand, and had one halfway smoked sitting in a coffee cup next to him,” Haslem said, with Jordan leaving the NBA in 2002-03, the season before Haslem entered with the Heat as an undrafted forward out of Florida. “Now, one thing I will say, I’m looking at that, and I’m like, ‘Man, I wish I could do what Mike do.’ I’ll sit in a locker room right now with a cigar.”
Haslem also quipped about what Dennis Rodman was able to pull off, as well, during the Bulls’ championship run, noting another scene in the documentary.
“I wish,” Haslem said, “I could practice in my pajamas and then nobody gonna say nothing.”