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Anyone who’s familiar with Michael Jordan knows he was never shy about talking trash to his opponents or teammates who failed to live up to his standards, but plenty of other people have ended up in the crosshairs of His Airness over the years—a group that apparently includes Common.
The two men actually have a fairly lengthy history; the Chicago native worked as a ball boy for the Bulls during the Jordan Era (he was front and center for the first exhibition game M.J. ever played) before pursuing a career as a rapper, and they’ve routinely crossed paths over the years.
Hip-hop is filled with a number of notable names who could hold their own on the court back in the day (Master P, 2 Chainz, and Cam’ron were all a forced to be reckoned with on the hardwood), and while Common’s experience in his youth was largely limited to pick-up games, he’s repeatedly shown off the skills he picked up as the son of a former ABA player at the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game.
In 2020, he earned the Most Valuable Player award by racking up 10 points, five rebounds, and five assists in the contest, but based on what he had to say during a recent interview with Men’s Health, Jordan seemed to be fairly underwhelmed by his performance.
Common recalled what transpired when he linked up with M.J. after the game, saying:
“Mike told me to stick to rapping. I was like, ‘Mike, you didn’t just see that game I had?’ I couldn’t believe that he didn’t recognize my game was actually a good game.
He grounded me for sure.”
It’s hard to imagine Common really took offense to that comment, and even though most people would probably prefer to be able to say they were praised by Michael Jordan, I think being at the receiving end of some trash talk delivered by one of the best to ever do it is still a pretty cool story to tell.