Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 12:30 pm  |  39 responses

Chris Webber on Mind Games from MJ and Phil

C-Webb suffered at the hands of the Zen Master and his best player during the Bulls’ dominance in the ’90s. Here’s the hilarious tale, as captured by SRI: “One time we played in Washington. We played a five game series against the Bulls. It was the year they won 72 games. We lose all three games by a total of seven points. I saw Michael Jordan come into our locker room with a cigar, while it was lit, and said, ‘Who’s going to check me tonight?’ And we looked at Calbert Cheaney and we were laughing like little school kids knowing that Calbert Cheaney was going to get him, we knew it wasn’t a game for Mike. He was going to be there and he was going to be playing like he said. Game Three we get off the bus and Juwan (Howard) is from Chicago and used to workout there. I’ll never forget, Jordan was sitting on his Ferrari and Pippen was right there and they have a cigar lit. We get off the bus and we have to pass them with a lit cigar. You want to talk about posturing? Forget Phil Jackson. You got Michael Jordan there behind the scenes smoking a cigar before the game, letting us know that he’s the Red Auerbach before the game even started. It was almost like, ‘I lit the cigar. I’m celebrating already. This is just a formality, you guys getting on the court tonight.”’

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  • meloMan2.0 Posted: Apr.19 at 12:34 pm
    SICK

  • letsmotor Posted: Apr.19 at 12:43 pm
    i love MJ stories like this.

  • Anton Posted: Apr.19 at 12:43 pm
    What does this have to do with Phil? It’s all MJ.

  • Marcel Mutoni Posted: Apr.19 at 12:49 pm
    Click on the article, Anton. And more importantly, check out the ‘Washington Bullets’ tag. Woot.

  • The Philosopher Posted: Apr.19 at 1:13 pm
    How much cooler can you get? Tell me, someone, please??!! That’s pure cool. Chris Webber is a man’s man for telling it, and Marcel Motoni, good s:!t.

  • don Posted: Apr.19 at 1:14 pm
    MJ was a master technician. Once he reached the level of supreme NBA basketball being I am pretty sure his ‘mindgames’ left the battle half won, before he even walked onto the court.

  • The Philosopher Posted: Apr.19 at 1:15 pm
    @Marcel Mutoni: My bad for spelling your name wrong.

  • ENDS Posted: Apr.19 at 1:17 pm
    Gotta read the Articles Anton. And Here come the Jordan Suckers

  • Ronald Posted: Apr.19 at 1:45 pm
    Love the Jordan stories. Supposedly players were banned from talking trash to Jordan by their respective coaches.

  • Rob Posted: Apr.19 at 2:02 pm
    Cosign don. I love how C Webb has no problem talking about it. That’s really cool.

  • Darksaber Posted: Apr.19 at 2:07 pm
    Oh my gawd, i shouldn’t but this is making me laugh, Hyena-style!! Too freaking cool for school!! MJ and Pip, sitting on da ‘rarri, smoking stooges while the young dysfunctional Wizards troop in to get pasted, oh my gawd this is good stuff!!

  • Michael Scorn Posted: Apr.19 at 2:10 pm
    @Chris Webber- You guys played Chicago in 1997, the year they won 69 games, not 1996 when they won 72 games. Great story though!

  • AndTheJellosJigglin Posted: Apr.19 at 2:21 pm
    If he cant even remember what year it was, how much validity does any of this have??

  • Ghost (of Roy Tarpley) Posted: Apr.19 at 2:43 pm
    relax man he’s not the bulls statistician. Im sure he can remember how many games the bullets lost though.

  • larrylegend Posted: Apr.19 at 2:57 pm
    hear that kobe? work to do!

  • BostonBaller Posted: Apr.19 at 3:20 pm
    That story has been told by a couple of Washington players so the validity is there..Plenty of players forget there years but not the event. lol.

  • doyouwantmore Posted: Apr.19 at 3:39 pm
    Sounds like Jordan was just a huge A-hole. Kind of in a good way, though.

  • Gerwin Posted: Apr.19 at 3:53 pm
    Love it! What about grabbing the cigar, putting it on the ground, stamp it and walk away. Wouldn’t you then make a statement. I can understand you don’t do this against the G.O.A.T., but hey, you are playing to win right. Right?!

  • Maui Maui Posted: Apr.19 at 4:07 pm
    Priceless… Money taking care of business.
    Makes me miss that time a little…

  • Michael Scorn Posted: Apr.19 at 4:08 pm
    I would like to hear the stories from 1992 when he destroyed Miami in round 1.

  • Wendallt Posted: Apr.19 at 7:28 pm
    Are U Serious! LeBron and Kobe will never reach his level. G.O.A.T.

  • ripslam Posted: Apr.19 at 7:50 pm
    Imagine if LeBron got caught with a cigar. He’d probably get lynched. The NBA today…SMH

  • M Cho Posted: Apr.19 at 8:05 pm
    @Gerwin: you know that if anyone DID do that, they’d just be motivating Money to go off for like 60 points, right? LOL.

  • aotearaw Posted: Apr.19 at 8:23 pm
    Epic story.

  • Logues Posted: Apr.19 at 8:51 pm
    one of the best bball stories ive heard.. mj is badass

  • melvin ely Posted: Apr.19 at 8:56 pm
    lol @ Don. Master technician? I wonder why MJ can get away with this but when Kobe or Lebron pull the same thing, everybody calls them out for being douchetards

  • Logues Posted: Apr.19 at 8:57 pm
    douchetards, huh?

  • zee Posted: Apr.19 at 10:20 pm
    No one ever said Jordan was humble. And if anyone did, they probably meant humble in terms of not being a total megalomaniac.

  • Joel O's Posted: Apr.19 at 11:18 pm
    Oh wow. Goes without saying, but MJ will always be the man.

  • Coney Islander Posted: Apr.19 at 11:37 pm
    6.

  • Simmy Sosa Posted: Apr.20 at 12:00 am
    He actually told this story on the Dan Patrick Show last week FYI

  • stu Posted: Apr.20 at 2:37 am
    @ simmy sosa – uh yeah, just like the story says?? thanks scoop.

  • Jackie Moon Posted: Apr.20 at 4:20 am
    It was lame behavior back then, and it would be lame behavior now.

  • JoeMaMa Posted: Apr.20 at 8:33 am
    Jackie Moon just hated on Jordan’s awesomeness. It WOULD be lame behaviour now, only because the guy that did it would be biting on MJ. But lame then? Who are you, a spurned lover?!?

  • Thomas Posted: Apr.20 at 11:36 am
    You guys should read the book Mind Games by Lazenby, it is full of little fun stories like that. I got a story to share too. After Stacey King, from the early 90′s Bulls team, got zero rebounds in 3 games, MJ said to his teammates that they shouldn’t call him a power forward anymore. Instead, they should refer him as “powerless forward.”

  • Dave Posted: Apr.20 at 11:39 am
    F**k Calbert Cheaney, they should have put Big Gheorge on him.

  • chintao Posted: Apr.21 at 5:14 am
    Fvck everyone in this story with large, inanimate objects, until their colons are perforated, and they bleed profusely from their anal cavities.

  • Michael Jordan and Living the Win | Scott Webb Posted: Apr.22 at 11:57 pm
    [...] a formality, you guys getting on the court tonight.”’Someone tweeted a link to this story on Slam Online.  This is money.  Never mind the mind games, I see a lesson here that goes with visualization and [...]

  • ClutchPerformer Posted: May.7 at 1:14 am
    cosign M Cho, I was gonna say something like that, you dont trash talk MJ or retaliate cuz you know hes gonna burn you even hard, ask Derrick Martin about that. and the reason we hate on Lebron is cuz hes doing this in game and acting stupid on live tv, the stuff these legends do were in private no tv, they dont dance and what not, and pretend to pose for pics, Kobe wouldnt pull this as much as i hate him hes not dumb enough to dance like lebron. which i give him respect to his poise. Im kinda on the train that say if you got the rings and what not you can be as bad as you wanna be, look at rodman, on the piston he was w.e. on the bulls he was bad to the bone but he had rings to back it up, these cats lik LBJ have no rings, so dont talk. kobe has rings and doesnt talk, MJ in 96 had 3 or 4 rings, and countless award, he could be ass bad as he wanted to be , theres a reason hes money, and homie was sitting on a ferrari, hes already Legit, G.O.A.T.

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