Sam Smith: Jordan has never said a word to me about “The Jordan Rules.” Never once, in thirty years. At the end of the interview, I said, “Hey, tell me something. Did you have to ask Michael permission to talk to me?” And the guy kind of stammered a little bit. And he said, “Well, we actually did ask him if it was O.K.” And I said, “Well, what’d he say?” He said, “I don’t give a fuck who you talk to.” The way I understood it is, he didn’t say whether they could or could not. They weren’t sure whether they should.
Tag: Sam Smith
Sam Smith: I thought the documentary …
Sam Smith: I thought the documentary was more “based on a true story.” I think there was a little bit of drama put into it. It was Michael’s story. It wasn’t a journalistic documentary, per se. And it shouldn’t be. He never told his story before. People never heard it from his standpoint, and that’s what it was.
Sam Smith: I had extraordinary access …
Sam Smith: I had extraordinary access that doesn’t exist anymore, in any form. You can develop relationships. Media guys still develop the relationships. But these men and women who do that now have to produce something, like, every two hours. I would make other calls. I would check on things. I would hang out with players. The Bulls practiced in a public health club. I joined it as a member. So when they would lift weights after practice, I would be next to them. I wouldn’t lift weights, but I would be sitting with them. Now everything is privacy. The locker room was just open. For a 7 p.m. game, Jordan would come at, like, 3 p.m. or something, so I’d get there and just talk with him for three hours. Now you’ve got ten minutes with guys, if that. LeBron is celebrated for being one of the few in the whole league who comes out before the game and gives the media five minutes. Jordan gave everybody three hours.
Hodges: “It wasn’t him. I said that …
Hodges: “It wasn’t him. I said that before and I will say it now. It wasn’t him.” Grant: “Let me tell you, man, that’s a damn lie. I wish I could say something else. But that’s a damn lie. Sam Smith was an investigative reporter and when you write a book I guess you have to have two sources, correct? Why would MJ just point me out? If you have a problem with me come to me. We could take care of it like men. Don’t try to put me out there because I didn’t say anything to Sam in the sanctity of that locker room. Point blank. And, one example, Sam Smith more times would allow my teammates…he would spend time with MJ, up in MJ’s suite and on the golf course and lunch and dinners. So for him to come out and say that, that’s a blatant lie. Lie, lie, lie. If you want to tell lies, go ahead it’s a free country.”
Former Chicago Bulls forward Horace …
Former Chicago Bulls forward Horace Grant has fired back at claims Michael Jordan made against him during “The Last Dance” documentary series on ESPN. In a radio interview with Kap and Co. on ESPN 1000 in Chicago on Tuesday, Grant said it “is a downright, outright, completely lie” that he leaked much of the information in Sam Smith’s famous “The Jordan Rules” book, as Jordan alleged during the documentary.
“Lie, lie, lie. … If MJ had a grudge …
“Lie, lie, lie. … If MJ had a grudge with me, let’s settle this like men,” Grant said during the interview. “Let’s talk about it. Or we can settle it another way. But yet and still, he goes out and puts this lie out that I was the source behind [the book]. Sam and I have always been great friends. We’re still great friends. But the sanctity of that locker room, I would never put anything personal out there. The mere fact that Sam Smith was an investigative reporter. That he had to have two sources, two, to write a book, I guess. Why would MJ just point me out? It’s only a grudge, man. I’m telling you, it was only a grudge. And I think he proved that during this so-called documentary. When if you say something about him, he’s going to cut you off, he’s going to try to destroy your character.”
Sam Smith: “Would they have won again? …
Sam Smith: “Would they have won again? No. Because that’s like saying, ‘If he hadn’t fallen off that building, he would be alive!’ Pippen was estranged for a year; heck, he had a half season sit-down strike. Rodman was melting down and did so in Los Angeles. Phil was one step into a sabbatical for a year. Michael clearly was burned out, as he was seen telling Ahmad Rashad in the documentary. Pippen had back surgery after the 1997-98 season and was never again close to the player he’d been. Also, Jordan sustained a severe cut on his shooting hand that offseason from a cigar cutter and could no longer grip the ball and would have trouble shooting. How would his legacy have looked trying to come back without any preseason or camp under those circumstances? Plus, all those Bulls reserve guys like Luc Longley, Steve Kerr and Jud Buechler got long-term contracts from new teams that I am certain all their teams regretted and made no sense for the Bulls to match. This another-year thing is so pathetic. It’s like a teenager dreaming for years about the girlfriend who dumped him. If only… Move on!”
I went to the E.W. Scripps School of …
I went to the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, interned at the Associated Press in Israel and worked at ESPN for nearly seven years. But I think my best journalism education has come from sitting next to Sam Smith in the media room at the United Center. I’ve cherished our talks before and after games and I can still remember how he chided me (and pretty much everyone else) for assuming Derrick Rose would come back during that fateful lost season in 2012-13. Sam didn’t believe he was coming back and this was well before the tumult started about Rose’s failed return. I should’ve listened to him. So it’s always nice to talk to him about his most famous book, “The Jordan Rules,” which got some TV time during “The Last Dance.”
Sam isn’t the biggest self-promoter, so …
Sam isn’t the biggest self-promoter, so how did he come up with the idea before the Bulls’ fateful 1990-91 season? “I modeled it after David Halberstam’s ‘Breaks of the Game,’” he said. “I always liked how he did a book that followed that season and backtracked into the players’ lives to get the humanity of it superimposed on current events. When I proposed this project, I literally went to a publisher housed across the street from the Tribune. I went up by myself and told them my idea. I wrote out a proposal and they offered me $4,000 for an advance. I said I’m not in this for the money, but I need to buy a computer and pay for babysitting. I said I need $6,000 and he said couldn’t afford it.”
“She’s getting rejection letters, 8-10 …
“She’s getting rejection letters, 8-10 rejection letters,” he said. “‘Sam Smith? Who’s this? Michael Jordan? He never won anything.’ But she works out a deal with Simon & Schuster for like $25,000. She kind of used that offer as leverage and got another publisher involved and she got an advance of $50,000 (from Simon & Schuster). That’s big money, more than I was making at the Tribune actually.” Smith didn’t imagine the season would end in a championship, and he claims he had no idea the book would blow up as it did.