[surveParticipant]

 1993 – Sam Cassell refers to UNC fans as "wine and cheese crowd".  The Seminoles come into the Smith Center and have UNC down big at halftime and down by 21 in the 2nd half.  UNC clamped down on D and the crowd went into a frenzy.  UNC put on a 28-4 run in last 9 minutes to overtake FSU.

there are many other examples in other sports, like Mike Tyson (eat Lennox Lewis kids) and Rex Ryan on his recent trashing of the Giants. 

in the NBA I know many like to bring up Spike Lee and the Pacers….or Lebron and "not three, not four…."

What are some good basketball instances?

[RICO 1981Participant]

The one that comes  to my mind is matt hasselbeck’s we want the ball and we’re gonna score before OT in Green bay, then throwing the game losing pick six.  SMH.  As far as basketball story I remember Lance stephenson vs OJ  Mayo when Lance layed him up and then hscreamed at him.  Then Oj Mayo when off hitting J after J calling lance  to the three point line to get faced over and over. 

[surveParticipant]

 lol, Hasselbeck was funny because of the ridiculous grin on his face.

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

Vince Young and his "dream team" crap… he put so much pressure on us that wasn’t supposed to be there.

[UNCbasketballbumParticipant]

anytime when some moron guarantees a game seven victory and they lose…

[Mr. ChicagoParticipant]

If you haven’t read Bill Simmons book of Basketball, the Michael Jodan section describes your title. The man was pathological. He used every bit of information "real or imagined" to fuel his fire.

Here is just a little excerpt:

"The coach was referring to Jordan’s near-mystical ability to take every slight personally — vengefully — in a "Clint Eastwood during the last 20 minutes of ‘Unforgiven’ " kind of way. During his playing days, MJ was always motivating himself with petty little slights, whether it was somebody writing that Clyde Drexler was his equal during the ’92 FInals, or Rick Pitino questioning his hamstring injury during the ’89 Playoffs, or Karl Malone lobbying for the MVP Award after the ’97 season … with Jordan, it was always something. Somebody was always rubbing him the wrong way. If you looked at him cross-eyed during his reign, he torched you for 45 out of principle. And that’s how he remained on top, because he was always searching for the next challenge, even if he had to create that challenge himself.

 

Eventually his opponents learned to leave him alone, and in a phenomenon unlike anything else we’ve witnessed in sports; Michael Jordan became the basketball version of a sleeping tiger. In a league full of smack-talkers, chest-thumpers and yappers, amazingly, Jordan remained completely off-limits. That hasn’t happened before or since. And even if Michael Jordan has been retired for three full years, a current NBA coach still considered him a viable threat, someone who shouldn’t be angered under any circumstances without a valid reason. Maybe that tells us everything we need to know."

Above all else, i just think reading about him is intersting, and seeing the changes in the NBA. The way AAU basketball has changed the relationships between these superstars.

Here is another article about hi impending comeback (http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1253572)

[HaleParticipant]

 "At some point, The Star and MJ crossed paths … and The Star started talking smack to MJ, good-natured stuff. You better not come back. This is our league now. We don’t want to embarrass you. That kind of stuff. And Jordan was nodding happily, finally saying, "When’s our first game against you guys? I’m gonna make it a point to drop 40 on you." You could almost imagine Jordan pulling out a piece of paper and adding The Star’s name to the list of "Guys Whose Butts Need to Be Kicked, Part One."

Of course, as the story goes, The Star’s coach caught wind of this running exchange and immediately headed over to pull his player away from Jordan. And as they walked away, the coach told The Star, "Never talk to him. You hear me? That’s the one guy you don’t talk smack to!""

I remember reading this and thinking it was so damn cool.

 

 

[Mr. ChicagoParticipant]

Another one of my favorites:

Craig Hodges on a Bulls Practice.

"I can remember this time in, I think, 1990 when Scottie decided to challenge Michael one day in practice," Hodges said. "Michael kind of backed up for a half-second. Then he proceeded, literally, to score on Scottie at will. It was incredible. I mean, Scottie Pippen even then was one of the best players in the league and Michael just rained points on him. Scottie had to step back and say, ‘Slow up, man.’ "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/nba/longterm/jordan/articles/wilbon14.htm

I would highly recommend another book called "The Jordan Rules" by columnist Sam Smith. It is a great read about the competitive lunatic that was Michael Jordan.

And @Surve, I would definitely say Michael was the worst player to talk trash too.

[surveParticipant]

 man, there are a million MJ stories.  

this is a thread I did a while back.

Michael Jordan, who heard Jerry Stackhouse’s stories of beating him in pickup games, outscored him, 48-15, sitting out the last nine minutes. Philadelphia Coach John Lucas said Jordan told him North Carolina Coach Dean Smith asked him to torch the rookie. Noted Jordan, delicately: "We both came out of a program where we were taught not to talk like that." . . . Grant Hill, a fast learner who faces Jordan today on national television, is begging him not to take the All-Star voting, which Hill again leads, personally. "Tell him I voted for him," said Hill. "I don’t want to do anything to get him upset." . . .

source- http://articles.latimes.com/1996-01-21/sports/sp-27125_1_clippers/2 

 

http://nbadraft.net/forum/famous-incidents-and-humbling-experiences

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