It is well known that Michael Jordan had a legendary competitive drive, but his motivating strategy was rather unique and demanding as well.
Former teammate power forward Horace Grant found that out the hard way on several occasions.
Per Jake Montero on KNBR:
“Players would come to me over the years and said, ‘You know what he did? He took Horace [Grant’s] food away on the plane because Horace had a bad game,’” [sportswriter Sam] Smith said. “[Michael] told the stewardesses ‘Don’t feed him, he doesn’t deserve to eat.’
“They would tell me stuff like that and they they’d say ‘Why don’t you write this?’ And I would say ‘Well I can’t write it unless you say it.’ I don’t do ‘league sources.’ You can’t do that kind of stuff on these kind of things. ‘If you want to be quoted I’ve got no problem with that.’ ‘No, no, no we can’t say that about Michael Jordan.’”
Grant won three NBA championships alongside Jordan and the Bulls from 1991 to 1993, but he would later become an enemy when he signed on with the Orlando Magic and defeat Chicago in the 1995 Eastern Conference Finals to advance to the NBA Finals, losing to the Houston Rockets.
Grant has been seen many times during ESPN’s The Last Dance documentary that chronicled Jordan and the Bulls’ pursuit for a sixth championship in eight years during the 1997-98 season.
