Michael Jordan Urged Draymond Green And The Warriors To Break The Bulls’ 72-Win Record

You may expect the most ruthless competitor to ever wear an NBA uniform to be salty about the Golden State Warrior’s potentially breaking his team’s greatest single-season record of 72-10. After all, we are talking about the dude who ruined Mugsy Bogues’ career during game 5 of the 1995 playoffs…

Per Viral Hoops,

When Johnny Bach was coaching with the Hornets in 1995 they had a good team. Glen Rice, Mourning, Johnson. Series was tied at 2 and Hornets had a chance to win game 5 in Chicago.

On the biggest possession of the game, Mugsy had the ball with the Hornets down 1.

Jordan backed off of him and told him: “shoot it you fucking midget.” Mugsy shot it, didn’t come close. A year later Mugsy actually told Johnny Bach that he believes that single play ruined his career. His shot never recovered.

^One of my favorite MJ stories. A perfect microcosm of his unwavering self-assurance.

So it would be true to form of Jordan to reiterate Scottie Pippen’s view on the Warriors making NBA history when Pippen said that if Golden State doesn’t win a title, the record doesn’t mean a thing. Valid. He also went on to say that the ’95-’96 Bulls would sweep the Warriors in a seven game series. Pump the breaks, dude.

Draymond Green revealed what Jordan said to him during the All-Star game about breaking his record, and it flies in the face of everything we’d expect from the greatest player to ever live.

Via ESPN,

“Mike told me at All-Star, ‘Go win the record, go get the record. If y’all don’t win this record, I’m going to be hot and I’m blaming you.’ So we’re almost there. Got one more game or he’s going to blame me.”

Granted, this was probably a round about mind-fuck from MJ, but on the surface it seems supportive and motivational. I guess we’ll find out Wednesday as the Warriors close the regular season at home against the Memphis Grizzlies.

As far as what Bill Wennington has to say about the record, we’ll ask him when he returns to earth.

[h/t Uproxx, ESPN]

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.