Also, throwing a bottle at some girl is pretty cowardly. He would have howled like a stuck pig if someone had done that to him.

Worry01 on May 7, 2014 at 5:43 pm

I think WAS is the operative word here, right? He is saying he WAS a racist. Not that he IS anymore. An important distinction.

Letterhed on May 7, 2014 at 6:02 pm

I guess she was lucky that all she got was a soda bottle thrown at her. Today, she’d be lucky if she was still alive.

Little Al on May 7, 2014 at 6:05 pm

Two wrongs don’t make a right in this experience that Michael Jordan witnessed as a teenage kid and a young man, on one hand, a girl threw a foreign object weapon at him by calling him the “N” word and using white-supremacy towards MJ, and on the other hand, MJ did a dumbass knee-jerk maneuver of claiming that he’s a racist and a hatemonger towards the average white person, because of that one stupid racist girl, so none are justified.

We all have a little bigotry and unilateral in us, now here’s the $100,000 question, is the media going to condemn MJ in his writing of saying that he doesn’t like white people that much because of one stupid person who he had a negative experience with? I highly doubt that the media will call him out on it and hold repercussions towards him?!?!

Sean R. on May 7, 2014 at 6:07 pm

Ah! I can just smell all the diversity in the air (Jordan©.) Can you smell it, too?

DS_ROCKS! on May 7, 2014 at 6:07 pm

Explain to me again why people care about these sports morons.

Prometheus on May 7, 2014 at 6:20 pm

And Jordon’s wording is a little disingenuous. Did he really, at that time consider himself a racist? I doubt it. This is hindsight, at best. He may be afraid the incident will come out, and is trying to preempt it.

Little Al on May 7, 2014 at 6:48 pm

Um obviously this is a memoir, the man was 14 years old, he is admitting that he was racist. He not saying he is now, what is the problem here, he was a kid, he’s admitting that one time he hated white folks. This is a non issue.

I don’t know how many times I was called niggar, walking to the store, or when I had to go to public school after parents divorced. Yeah I remember when Mike Pitts called me one, the most popular kid in the school walked by and said “F him up” I broke his nose, um I was 11 yrs old. I hated public school too much of a culture shock most ill behaved kids on the planet.

Big D on May 7, 2014 at 7:01 pm

That’s okay moron, I don;t like or think much of you, either.

P.S. I’m white.

Ed on May 7, 2014 at 7:04 pm

Jordan considered himself a racist at the time but then success rounded over his hard edges.
Now Jordan is self actualized enough to realize revenge is a dish best served cold.
Personally I’m tired of sporting celebrities repeating whatever nonsense gets put into their head by the “liberals” that flatter them.
It’s cool to be racist if it reminds white folks why they’re the racists that control everything.
In fact it’s so cool it’s almost mundane. Try boring.

Frankz on May 7, 2014 at 7:33 pm

The double standard in our society is appalling. Unfortunately, that’s how the US is today. Black people get a free pass while whites have to walk on eggshells. Uttering the “wrong” word or idea can result in someone being ostracized from society.

Jeff on May 7, 2014 at 7:49 pm

So, guess what Michael? If in high school you had called me a honky b***h, I may have thrown a bottle of soda at your big ‘ol stupid head. I wouldn’t like you one bit after that. But I wouldn’t hate you. And it certainly wouldn’t make me go forth hating ALL blacks after that.

This racist stuff is annoying and it has grown so tiresome. Why aren’t we all instead reflecting on the wonderful people we’ve met, liked and respected in our lives who are of a different ethnicity than ourselves? All those good people have enriched my life and I have been made better for knowing them. I hope I am held in the same regard.

Michael Jordan could easily have shared a more uplifting and encouraging anecdote about his life experience regarding his dealings with white people. Because I would put money on it that he has plenty of positive stories to share. But instead, he is consciously choosing to point us all towards the low road. What a shame Michael. I’ll pass on the low road.

Kairn on May 7, 2014 at 9:04 pm

Donald Sterling is NOT a racist. If you think so, cite the exact words he used in the V. Stiviano tape that proves he is. Otherwise, you don;t know what you are talking about. BTW, he said on the tape that he likes Magic Johnson. Is that racist? He gave money to the NAACP? Is that racist? Can anyone here think for themselves?

FriscoKid on May 7, 2014 at 9:09 pm

Oh yeah, one of his father’s killers was black, named Daniel Green, now he is called (and I am not kidding) Lord Uallah. Another prison convert. Do ya hate all blacks for this ONE criminal Mike? Or how about Islam, do ya like that? Or is it just white people you save your hate for? A S S H O L E!

FriscoKid on May 7, 2014 at 9:18 pm

So it is the democrat kkk’s fault that he was racist.

ender on May 7, 2014 at 9:38 pm

Michael Jordan’s sources of income:

White NBA team owners
White NBA fans
White NBA TV and radio sponsors
White buyers of overpriced Nikes

He should move to Africa where he would REALLY do well.

Hillel on May 7, 2014 at 9:52 pm

Just another cheap way of promoting his book….the one line is irrelevant…..we should just have ignored the tease ..

HK on May 7, 2014 at 10:15 pm

Bring back segregation.

fred on May 8, 2014 at 8:12 am

It’s completely ignorant to compare an individual’s own past admissions on mistakes and poor judgement he made to those of a man caught red handed spewing that hate and still feeling that way. Anyone that can defend Sterling’s comments and say he’s not a racist is most likely a racist themselves.

Comparing Jordan to Sterling is like comparing a recovered heroin addict to someone that is still an addicted junky. There’s a huge difference between someone that saw the light and realized theirs mistakes vs someone that still needs help!

Clayton on May 8, 2014 at 10:09 am

“saw the light” ??…..what an infantile juxtaposition..how about…saw T-H-A M-O-N-E-Y….get real

HK on May 8, 2014 at 10:47 am

Of COURSE! The (White) Devil Made Him Do It!!!!

CharlesMartel on May 8, 2014 at 2:26 pm

You might want to look in the stands and see who was paying to watch you play, idiot!

Jon24 on May 8, 2014 at 3:43 pm

“Lazenby told Sports Illustrated that it appeared that the root of Jordan’s animosity came from growing up in an area of North Carolina where the Ku Klux Klan once had a large presence …”

So they mutually disliked each other. Can’t condemn one without the other. But conservatives generally overlook or act as apologists for whites who dislike blacks, and liberals do the same with respect to blacks who dislike whites. Maybe some movement will come along that is willing to consistently declare that either A) both sides are equally morally wrong or B) there is nothing wrong with being a racist, so blacks who hate whites and whites who hate blacks should be equally tolerated.

Anyway …

The Donald Sterling thing is a bad comparison because one consists of your current views versus another is your previous ones.

The Paula Deen one, where she was raked over the coals for something that she said in the 1980s, is a better comparison. But even there, that is not totally equal. Jordan is talking about his views when he was an immature teenager. Deen was referencing her behavior when she was an adult.

Anyway, such nuances are going to be ignored by folks who dislike blacks and yet get angry when blacks exercise the same prerogative to dislike whites back. I am always amused at how white segregationists hate black nationalists more than they hate black civil rights integrationists, for instance. The segregationists hated Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam (long before the jihad threat of Islam was known by the way so don’t play that angle) more than they hated Martin Luther King and the NAACP, when you would think that they would have supported a black organization that supported segregation too! I guess they felt that blacks were supposed to want to integrate only to have those desires denied? Why? My guess is that a black segregationist threatens notions of white supremacy. They were willing to reject others on one hand, but being rejected in turn hurt their sense of self-worth. Meanwhile, black integrationism validates white supremacy, so with those folks you can tell them “No” while still feeling good about yourself. Sort of like the “go back to Africa” thing. When Marcus Garvey actually did organize a “back to Africa” movement, the segregationists had him deported and his movement shut down! The segregationists didn’t want the blacks to leave. What they really wanted was to force the blacks to stay around and be forced to state that whites are better. That does explain why such supremacists did have the tendency to make murderous rampages through self-reliant all black areas like Rosewood, Florida and Tulsa, rather than leaving communities of people who had no interest in integration alone. After all, if you are going to be a supremacist, you need people around to be supremacist over. Otherwise, it totally defeats the point. But imagine had they not deported Garvey and let his “back to Africa” movement continue. Things would be better in this country, right?

However, Michael Jordan’s claims of being a “former” racist is wrong anyway. That’s why even when I was a huge NBA fan, I never liked him: he was nothing but a big fraud. Michael Jordan is very race-obsessed, and uses very left-liberal politics as an outlet for his antipathy towards whites. When Phil Knight of Nike would not give Jordan a managerial position in his company, Jordan called Knight a racist. Privately of course. Publicly he denied it. (He didn’t want to upset his public endorser image.) Jackson refused to publicly endorse political candidates (because Republicans buy shoes too he once said) but privately he raised a lot of money for Jesse Jackson when Jackson ran for president. Jordan also was behind the scenes during the NBA labor problems in the 1990s. He set up other players to make the public statements and take the heat, but he was behind it. Jordan’s angle was that the white owners were ripping off the mostly black players of “their fair share.” Jordan’s behind-the-scenes role of the NBAPL kept David Stern – who was terrified of Jordan and never stood up for him – from enacting the personal conduct and appearance policies that the NFL and MLB did, because policing that would have been “racist.” That was why during Jordan’s era players began wearing the baggy pants, tattoos … looking like they had just got out of prison, and also began to openly defy and undermine coaches. Jordan had a shot to make a difference by standing up to Allen Iverson – who was the leader in bringing the prison culture to the NBA – but he backed down in face of the “Iverson is just expressing blackness and exposing class/race/culture differences with his anger” nonsense. Now Iverson is flat broke (with no employment skills or prospects) having squandered a almost quarter of a billion dollars in salary and endorsements, his wife left him and won’t let him see his kids, and had to watch his less talented former teammate, who unlike Iverson was willing to leave his rough past behind – Ollie attended the notorious Crenshaw High School in South Central Los Angeles – and embrace bourgeoisie values, and not only retained his basketball earnings and family but recently became a national championship college basketball coach. An example of how being racist against whites hurts blacks too maybe?

Gerald on May 8, 2014 at 3:45 pm

Gerald, it appears you’ve been harboring an enormous amount of MJ-black-white-right wrong related feelings for a long time, hope you feel better now. Much of what you say though has merit, especially the last 3 sentences. That said, and although I bleed green, he is the greatest basketball player to ever play the game. Outside of that sphere of influence….well, he’s gornisht,nada, nothing.

HK on May 8, 2014 at 4:58 pm

Oh, things are getting better and better around here: the gay-hating, anti-Semitic, phony conservative Gerald has stopped by. He’s another one to ignore. First, he virtually never engages those who respond to his posts. Second, he lacks the decency even to be a consistent liberal. You see, while Gerald wants special treatment for blacks and demands great sensitivity to black feelings, he casually attacks other minorities. This is Not Done, of course. So, all his blather amounts to the demand that we pander to him because it is in his self-interest that we do. Not very convincing. Third, he doesn’t care about any of the major issues of this blog.

That said, it’s fun to watch him spend so long writing with many of the regulars just ignoring his piffle.

skzion on May 8, 2014 at 5:47 pm

I must disagree with Gerald on the assesment of Jordan’s play. He actually exemplified team play – making everyone of his team mates better. There were gunners in the 1970s and ’80s who did not do that (Pete Maravich, Dominique Wilkins). And the notion that the PG position no longer exists is total bunk. There are a ton of dominant point guards.

Vivian on May 8, 2014 at 9:14 pm

Kumbaya, Don’t you all just feel that love…Obama uniting us all.

sal on May 9, 2014 at 10:22 am

I remember hitchhiking (walking) down 7 Mile Road going to Edgewater Park back in the 60’s. Blacks driving by throwing things at us, yelling “HONKIES”, MF’s, etc. But that’s just fine! Those boneheads always get their black rage pass. I carry a big gun now. And will not hesitate for a split second to defend (and get revenge) myself. I’m waiting……

MuzzCrusher on May 9, 2014 at 11:44 am

MuzzCrusher, go away please. A complete moron. Your dumb butt will got shot first most likely.

Big D on May 9, 2014 at 5:27 pm

Wow! The author of this piece is clearly biased against MJ and blacks as a whole. He even left out the part about where MJ spoke about Roots. Do yourselves a favor and read another article on this topic, rather than this biased piece of crap. If you really feel MJ is a racist then why don’t you watch that miniseries and maybe then you can see where he is coming from. Pretty much every black person who saw Roots disliked white people for at least 10 seconds. This guy doesn’t want people knowing that part since it could shatter all of his idiotic complaints that black people get whatever they want. You can only understand MJ if you heard everything he had to say rather than this selective BS. This guy is the true racist. What a loser.

Marcus on May 11, 2014 at 7:49 pm

Mark Cuban about to be slayed for honesty, Sharpton gets a TV show, Jordan gets a free pass. I grew up in the Charlestown section of Boston in the 60’s thru the 90’s and now live ina lily white suburb of Detroit, I am telling you “Separate but Equal” it works, we don’t need blacks for anything, we are already there all we need is a nudge, before the inevitable race war that is coming to America.

Bill Bratton on May 22, 2014 at 12:54 pm

Unmasked, I am a very proud white Irish Catholic male who owns my home in the third wealthiest county in the US, the truth bothers you, the fact that 99% of white people could care less if you kill each other you are irelevent to most white Americans.

Bill Bratton on May 22, 2014 at 1:01 pm

Black folks have a perfectly justifiable reason to hate whites. History is the premise upon which I base my comment.

Who Cares on August 13, 2014 at 8:57 pm

Jordan is an a**hole. Duh. I don’t care what professional sports do.

Occam's Tool on October 24, 2014 at 12:03 am

Do you ignorant low level IQs have any idea what it was like living in the south as a black kid as Jordan was? No you never do…you spout shit like you know what the hell you are talking about but you never do. Whites ignore, willfully their own despicable history and their present is not much better.

Wonderbread Idiots on November 9, 2014 at 12:17 pm

Do you ignorant low level IQs have any idea what it was like living in the south as a black kid as Jordan was? No you never do…you spout shit like you know what the hell you are talking about but you never do. Whites ignore, willfully their own despicable history and their present is not much better.

truth sayer on July 8, 2015 at 9:08 pm

Michael Jorden wasn’t racist. He just reacted to a racist – completely different thing. As others have said he probably was frightened that the incident would get out so in order to pander to white people said he was racist. That’s white people favourite now phrase at the moment.

Cristalexi on October 8, 2015 at 12:23 pm

You people are so stupid it’s comical! So we decimated your race enslaved you stole and hoarded all the wealth in America put in jim crow laws have mass incarceration extrajudicial police murders but Micheal jordan is mad at that so he’s racist smh no the system is racist and any victim of it would be pissed you idiots are a joke

Robert on March 26, 2016 at 3:28 am

And it will be great to deliver a big post supremacy “payback” to all you racists in American, and decimate your “people”[A grand amalgamation of dirty/filthy Euro-trash by the way! ;-)]and watch you go in flames with a big, black fist foot standing over you like the dirty animals you are!

mark potok on August 13, 2016 at 9:24 am

Bah. A non-story here. He was 14. People change. A lot of foolishness here on both sides.

Eben on September 3, 2016 at 12:14 pm