{"id":1336629,"date":"2021-03-16T09:34:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T13:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1336629"},"modified":"2023-09-04T14:17:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T18:17:06","slug":"michael-jordans-27-year-dispute-with-sports-illustrated-began-with-3-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-jordans-27-year-dispute-with-sports-illustrated-began-with-3-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan's 27-Year Dispute With Sports Illustrated Began With 3 Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Coaching the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-didnt-want-chicago-bulls-draft-scottie-pippen-wanted-former-unc-teammate\/\">Chicago Bulls<\/a> with <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/michael-jordan\/\">Michael Jordan<\/a> in retirement during the 1993\u201394 NBA season was a thankless task. However, Phil Jackson coached them to 55 wins and a spot in the conference semifinals, so the job wasn\u2019t impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, try publishing the country\u2019s best-known sports magazine without any cooperation from the superstar who\u2019d just <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/isiah-thomas-would-have-won-8-or-9-championships-playing-with-michael-jordan\/\">led the Bulls to one three-peat<\/a> and would soon carry them to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jordan\u2019s beef with Sports Illustrated is now at 27 years and counting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-michael-jordan-switched-sports-mid-career\">Michael Jordan switched sports mid-career<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michael Jordan plays right field for the White Sox\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ezVvXFgjGgg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-pulled-a-potentially-illegal-power-move-minor-league-baseball\/\">Michael Jordan Once Pulled a Potentially Illegal Power Move During His Stint in Minor League Baseball<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One explanation for Michael Jordan\u2019s abrupt retirement from the Chicago Bulls on Oct. 6, 1993, is that there was little left to accomplish. The Bulls were coming off an NBA three-peat, and Jordan had already been an All-Star nine consecutive seasons. Others speculated wildly that Jordan was actually serving a one-year suspension that the league wanted to hush up to avoid embarrassment, though no one has ever produced credible evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jordan himself said at the time that he had lost his enthusiasm for the sport, noting that his father had been murdered three months earlier. Being in a perpetual spotlight wherever he went may have also factored into his thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Four months later came an equally surprising disclosure from Jordan: He had signed to <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-struck-out-during-1-chance-join-chicago-white-sox-dont-think-proven-make-team\/\">play baseball in the Chicago White Sox<\/a> organization. He played the 1994 season with the Birmingham Barons of the Class AA Southern League. Jordan hit only .202 and struck out 114 times, but he also drove in 51 runs and showed respectable baseball instincts. He <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-minor-league-batting-average-actually-disappointed-hitting-coach\/\">followed up by batting .252<\/a> in the Arizona Fall League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-michael-jordan-s-dispute-with-sports-illustrated-began-with-three-words\">Michael Jordan\u2019s dispute with Sports Illustrated began with three words<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Michael Jordan Baseball Experience\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hULMzZ6xttU?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/charles-barkley-threatened-slap-hell-out-of-someone-defending-michael-jordan\/\">Charles Barkley Once Threatened to \u2018Slap the Hell out\u2019 of Someone While Defending Ex-Friend Michael Jordan: \u2018I\u2019m Going to Take My Chances With the Judicial System\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Jordan\u2019s abrupt career change attracted understandable skepticism, particularly from baseball observers. That wasn\u2019t helped by <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-even-trash-talked-latroy-hawkins-during-their-time-minor-league-baseball\/\">Jordan\u2019s slow start<\/a> in spring training, which should have been understandable given that he hadn\u2019t played organized baseball since high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sports Illustrated sent reporter Steve Wulf to the Chicago White Sox complex to check out <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/michael-jordan-got-called-to-the-managers-office-breaking-baseballs-unwritten-rules\/\">Jordan\u2019s progress<\/a>. To say he was underwhelmed after Jordan had been in camp for less than a month would be an understatement. Wulf wrote that he sided with the \u201cbaseball snobs\u201d who were \u201cright about one thing: He will never, ever hit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wulf piled on later in his story, which Sports Illustrated published in mid-March:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMichael Jordan has no more business patrolling right field in Comiskey Park than Minnie Minoso has bringing the ball upcourt for the Chicago Bulls,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pretty harsh stuff, right?  Well, that wasn\u2019t the worst of it. The headline on the cover was, \u201cBag it, Michael!\u201d It was accompanied by a photo of Jordan flailing pathetically at a pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/chicago\/bulls\/steve-wulf-talks-michael-jordans-sports-illustrated-ban-baseball-days\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NBC Sports<\/a> noted last year that Jordan stopped speaking to Sports Illustrated after that cover headline and story.  He\u2019s kept the magazine frozen out since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-even-the-author-didn-t-like-the-way-si-treated-mj\">Even the author didn\u2019t like the way \u2018SI\u2019 treated MJ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">MJ never talked to Sports Illustrated again after this cover: Bag It, Michael! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TheLastDance?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#TheLastDance<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4wE1wIRYad\">pic.twitter.com\/4wE1wIRYad<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ballislife\/status\/1259657044979826691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 11, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sports Illustrated reporter Steve Wulf told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/sports\/2020\/05\/13\/michael-jordan-was-rightly-insulted-by-1994-si-story-says-writer-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Washington Post<\/a> that he checked in on Michael Jordan during the 1994 minor-league season and came away impressed with how much the 31-year-old, retired NBA star had improved his baseball skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThose weak swings he was taking in spring training were now line drives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wulf said he wrote what he described as a \u201cmea culpa\u201d story, but the magazine declined to publish it. He doesn\u2019t fault Jordan for refusing to acknowledge the magazine\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think he\u2019s perfectly within his rights to maintain that stance. The headline was over the top,\u201d Wulf said. \u201cAnd I know SI thought, \u2018Well, we put him on the cover so many times. What\u2019s the big deal about this?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWell, you know what, we disrespected him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Like <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Sports7dotcom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Sports7<\/em><\/a><em> on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sports719\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>@sports719<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Jordan stopped cooperating with Sports Illustrated after a 1994 article about the Chicago Bulls great's quest to play baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":1576624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10552,4815,5026,4835],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Michael Jordan&#039;s 27-Year Dispute With Sports Illustrated Began With 3 Words - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Michael Jordan stopped cooperating with Sports Illustrated after a 1994 article about the Chicago Bulls great&#039;s quest to play baseball.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-jordans-27-year-dispute-with-sports-illustrated-began-with-3-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michael Jordan's 27-Year Dispute With Sports Illustrated Began With 3 Words\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Michael Jordan stopped cooperating with Sports Illustrated after a 1994 article about the Chicago Bulls great&#039;s quest to play baseball.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-jordans-27-year-dispute-with-sports-illustrated-began-with-3-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-16T13:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-04T18:17:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Michael-Jordan-baseball.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"769\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Sports7J\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-jordans-27-year-dispute-with-sports-illustrated-began-with-3-words\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/michael-jordans-27-year-dispute-with-sports-illustrated-began-with-3-words\/\",\"name\":\"Michael Jordan's 27-Year Dispute With Sports Illustrated Began With 3 Words - 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