{"id":131265,"date":"2025-06-28T10:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T10:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/131265\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T10:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T10:14:14","slug":"robert-parish-on-his-confrontation-with-michael-jordan-during-bulls-practice-he-said-he-would-kick-my-butt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/131265\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Parish On His Confrontation With Michael Jordan During Bulls Practice: “He Said He Would Kick My Butt…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Parish On His Confrontation With Michael Jordan During Bulls Practice: “He Said He Would Kick\u00a0My\u00a0Butt…”<\/a> originally appeared on Fadeaway World<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Robert Parish<\/a>‘s short stint with the Chicago Bulls<\/a> yielded title success, but it was far from being an easy ride. With pre-existing conflicts with Michael Jordan<\/a>, having been with the Boston Celtics<\/a> for most of his career, Parish recalled a confrontation he had with the Bulls star during a practice session on the “Locked On Celtics” podcast and said:<\/p>\n

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“I think he was a bit ticked off, too, because the second team was kicking their butt at the time and I was talking trash.\u00a0I didn’t back down.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He said he would kick my butt, and I told him if he felt that strongly about it, come and get some. That was the end of it. We didn’t have another confrontation.”<\/p>\n

The Bulls’ practice sessions used to get heated, particularly due to Jordan’s compulsive need to establish his dominance and test his teammates. Having returned to peak form after a 72-10 season and a title in hand, the Bulls star was at the peak of his powers. But, Parish, having been a champion before joining the Bulls, was unfazed by Jordan’s attempts at intimidation.<\/p>\n

In a previous episode of the “Cedric Maxwell Podcast<\/a>“, Parish mentioned how during another practice session, he was talking trash to Jordan after his team had won four games in a row. He recalled the star’s reaction to this and said:<\/p>\n

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“He took offense to it because clearly, no one ever manned up to him and challenged him. So he said that if I wasn’t careful, he would kick my ass.”<\/p>\n

Parish was not under any illusions about his teammate. At the age of 43, the big man had done and achieved everything there was to achieve as a professional. With four NBA titles, nine All-Star selections, and two All-NBA selections, he had established his place alongside the greats of the game.<\/p>\n

The confrontation between the two could be considered stressful, but it yielded positive results as the Bulls continued to dominate during the 90s. Parish’s two-year stint with the Bulls yielded two titles, although the center played a very minimal role as a reserve, averaging only 3.7 points and 2.1 rebounds per game during his time with the team.<\/p>\n

While Parish brought experience and composure with him, Jordan brought the competitive edge and dominance. Partnered with Scottie Pippen<\/a> and Dennis Rodman<\/a>, Jordan and the Bulls ran through the second half of the 90s.<\/p>\n

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Jordan’s averages of 29.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game from 1995-1998 only improved in the postseason, increasing to 31.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.1 assists.<\/p>\n

But Jordan’s brilliance in the playoffs was far from being the only factor dictating the success of the team. Both Pippen and Rodman played crucial roles<\/a> in helping the Bulls win those titles. Parish even admitted that Jordan wouldn’t have won without Rodman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The eight-year stretch proved to be one of the most fruitful ones in any franchise’s history, creating a dynasty for the ages and forming an undeniable legacy for Jordan. Although the Bulls legend would come out of retirement to play with the Washington Wizards<\/a>, even he admitted that this decision was a mistake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Tim Duncan Wasn’t Impressed With Michael Jordan’s Greatness As A Rookie: “I’ve Never Been A Fan Of His”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Fadeaway World<\/a> on Jun 27, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Parish On His Confrontation With Michael Jordan During Bulls Practice: “He Said He Would Kick\u00a0My\u00a0Butt…” originally appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,75,920,919,329,3824,3251,935,6,3040,468],"class_list":{"0":"post-131265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-bulls","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-bulls","13":"tag-chicagobulls","14":"tag-dennis-rodman","15":"tag-michael-jordan","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-robert-parish","18":"tag-washington-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}