His reputation as an incredible scorer, lock-down defender and fierce competitor still holds strong to this day, over two decades after his retirement. It’s that competitive nature that made him such a problem for his opponents. He would do whatever it took to win in the NBA and that sometimes stretched beyond just himself and his own actions. In fact, whenever the Bulls played the Boston Celtics, Jordan reportedly had a strict rule that he enforced on all of his teammates.
Michael Jordan’s Rule When Playing Boston
It was one he expected all of his teammates to follow
That wasn’t the case for his teammates, though, and Jordan was all too aware of the sort of impact that Larry Bird would have on them. Larry Legend was one of Jordan’s greatest rivals and MJ considers him to be the greatest trash-talker in the history of the NBA. He knew what the Boston icon would do if he had the chance to interact with Jordan’s teammates, so the former shooting guard enforced a strict rule that meant none of the Bulls players were allowed to talk to Bird whenever they played the Celtics.
In his book, Trash Talk: The Only Book About Destroying Your Rivals That Isn’t Total Garbage, and as quoted by Basketball Network, Rafi Kohan said:
“When the baby-faced B.J. Armstrong first joined the NBA, Bird took a run at him by saying, ‘I can’t believe they’re letting kids from junior high into the NBA.’ With Armstrong about to respond, Jordan stepped in. He said, ‘Not a single person. Not one word. No one talk to Larry Bird.’ To which Bird replied, pleading in his Indiana drawl, ‘C’mon, Michael. Let these guys get involved in it. Come on.'”