The crazy rule imposed by a rival of Michael Jordan on his teammates

Facing Michael Jordan was a constant challenge for his opponents, and it sometimes took a lot of imagination to ward off his performances. An ex-player had adopted a strange tactic at the time … to the point that his entire workforce had to follow his example!

When you think about it, few were able to stop Michael Jordan when he was in the NBA. Apart from the Bad Boys of Detroit and their famous Jordan Rules, there were not many people… This domination which he exercised, the six-time champion was quite aware of it and never hesitated to use it to disrupt his opponents. It is enough to listen to him use the trash-talking to realize it!

But His Airness also knew how to do the opposite, namely to lull players to sleep with compliments. Faced with so much vice, some veterans had no choice: it was necessary to avoid as much as possible direct contact with the rear. Former opponent of Mike, Xavier McDaniel explained in an excerpt cut during the editing of The Last Dance that he had made the choice… not to speak to her again. And he was pushing his teammates to put this tactic into action too!

Ban on talking to Jordan according to Xavier McDaniel

I used to tell guys, especially young people, that Michael loved to throw people off. He sits there and talks to you, tells you you’re having a great season, shakes your hand, encourages you to keep going and then slams you 48 points on the muzzle. When he’s ready to come see you, we in New York would tell others not to talk to Michael Jordan, he wasn’t our friend.

He’s going to get into your head, and after setting you on fire, he’ll tell you that you might have a good game next time. We didn’t allow our guys to talk to Michael before the game, which is what he liked to do before the game. For us, it was just a matter of pushing him around and not talking to him, under any circumstances.

The former guard had notably acted like this during his time at the Knicks, MJ still being motivated by the idea of ​​crushing an opponent as prestigious as New York. However, it was also necessary to resist him in terms of the game, which was even more complicated to do. Needless to say, the Hall of Famer has traumatized more than one, despite the strategy imposed. The main thing remains to have tried, we will say …

Motus and sewn-on mouth, that was Xavier McDaniel’s mantra when he faced Michael Jordan. To do so was one thing, to remain whole after the carnage inflicted by His Airness was quite another however …