“He was a jerk. He crossed the line numerous times” – Former Bulls center Will Perdue shreds Michael Jordan for being a horrible teammate originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Michael Jordan was always the standard of success. The icon who defined an era, rewrote the rules of global marketing and gave the Chicago Bulls six rings that once felt out of reach.
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On the court, he was a ruthless competitor, his tongue wagging with every blow, his eyes burning with an almost divine fury, and he expected the same from everyone wearing the Chicago uniform.
But greatness, when viewed from the inside, doesn’t always look like a fairytale.
Not a great teammate
Will Perdue, a role player who was teammates with Jordan during the Bulls’ first three-peat, admits that it wasn’t always rosy for those who shared the locker room with the greatest basketball player in the world.
“He was an a—hole,” the former Bulls center said. “He was a jerk. He crossed the line numerous times.”
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For fans, statements like that feel like heresy. But for those who were in the thick of the dynasty, guys who had to deal with Jordan not just as an icon but as a colleague, this wasn’t new information. The facade of Jordan as an infallible leader began to show cracks long ago, especially during the release of “The Last Dance,” the 2020 docu-series that spotlighted the Bulls’ 1997-98 season.
While it reignited admiration for Jordan’s excellence, it also reopened the vault of uncomfortable memories: from his clashes with Steve Kerr (which led to a now-famous punch in practice) to his unrelenting trash talk, mind games and psychological warfare on teammates who didn’t meet his standard of obsession.
Perdue’s comments resurface the reality that success under Jordan didn’t come free. The Bulls may have won titles, but the culture wasn’t built on warm pep talks. It was built on fear and dominance — often exercised by Jordan himself. And Perdue, who played four seasons with Chicago and started in 15 playoff games, was on the receiving end of those pressures more than once.
The Jordan wave
Perdue was a reliable piece of the supporting cast during the early 1990s, averaging nearly eight rebounds per game in his best season with Chicago and offering critical size in the post during stretches when Bill Cartwright was injured. But production was never enough for Jordan. What mattered was mentality. That meant pushing teammates to near-breaking points.
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Jordan’s style of leadership mirrored the hyper-intensity of legends like Kobe Bryant or even Bill Russell, but without much of the gentle redemption arc. For Jordan, dominance was his identity. And it left marks, even on the guys holding trophies.
“As time goes on and you think back about what he was actually trying to accomplish, you’re like, ‘Hey, he was a hell of a teammate,” Perdue confessed.
What Jordan was after was perfection. In his mind, every hard word, every challenge and every brutal practice session was a means to that end.
And it worked.
The Bulls became the defining team of the 1990s. From 1991 to 1998, they won six titles in eight seasons. They had two separate three-peats. Jordan was the Finals MVP every single time. But that excellence came with a price.
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A teammate like Perdue could now look back and see a different picture, one where the aggression wasn’t personal, but functional. And that’s the duality of Jordan.
He wasn’t trying to be liked. He was trying to win. And to do that, he turned every room into a pressure cooker. Not everyone made it out whole. But those who survived left with rings on their fingers.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 5, 2025, where it first appeared.