”Don't feed him, he doesn't deserve to eat” — When Michael Jordan starved Horace Grant
Michael Jordan and Horace Grant
We all have heard about Michael Jordan's disdain for Horace Grant and why the greatest player of all time never trusted him. It started in 1993 when Jordan accused Grant of leaking in-house intel about him and the Chicago Bulls to long-time Bulls insider and author Sam Smith — who at that time published all the intel in his book "The Jordan Rules."
Despite Grant claiming that these allegations were false, Jordan never really forgave him to the point that their off-court relationship never recovered. It even got to the point where Jordan would project his anger on the forward in different ways.
The time Jordan didn't allow Grant to eat.
According to Smith, this led to Jordan being a cruel teammate to Grant. Yes, even more brutal than what Jordan depicted in his documentary "The Last Dance." Smith said it got to a point where MJ wouldn't allow Grant to eat during their plane rides when the latter would have a bad game.
"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. [Michael] told the stewardesses 'Don't feed him, he doesn't deserve to eat," Smith said in an interview with the Tolbert, Krueger, and Brook show.
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"They would tell me stuff like that and 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," Smith added.
No one can really confirm if this rumor was true except for maybe Jordan, Grant, and the Bulls. But knowing how MJ treated his teammates, it's difficult not to believe this happened. Grant's respect for Jordan never faded despite voicing his concerns about how the latter executed his documentary.
Luckily for them, their animosity didn't matter so much on the court as they still ended up winning three championships together.
Oh, how times have changed
Many NBA legends who played in the '80s, '90s, and even early 2000s have mentioned how the NBA has become so soft in this era. But in fairness to this generation, they would never accept what Jordan did to Grant. Call me a snowflake here but come to think of it, what Jordan did to Grant (literally taking his food away) is downright bullying and abusive.
If a superstar like LeBron James did something similar to what Jordan did to Grant, he would probably be canceled by now.
Jordan is considered the greatest player for a reason, but it's also fair to criticize how he treated the people around him. After all, nobody is perfect. It's just unfortunate that Grant got on Jordan's wrong side and is probably his least favorite teammate ever.
