Thanks Michael, Love Bryon

Posted by deb on September 18, 2009

Let’s just imagine for a moment you are Bryon Russell. You are at home in Calabasas, California and decide to watch the Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony.  Mostly because  your former coach and two former teammates are being inducted.  As you listen to Jerry Sloan and John Stockton, you smile because you do have good memories of your time together.  Then a  former teammate in Washington gets up to talk, his Airness, MICHAEL JORDAN.  Much to your amazement and 99.9% of the people watching, he calls you out.  And it is about something that happened more than a decade ago.

So now you go from relative obscurity, for the average NBA  fan or worse, the player that let the Utah Jazz down defensively in a critical game 6 of an NBA finals, to the major nemesis of Michael Jordan, the reason he pushed himself on.  I am sure the google hits went up immediately as people tried to figure out who and what Michael was talking about.  And all of a sudden people want interviews,  want to know what your reaction is,  maybe even check to see if you have a twitter site and there is even a new paragraph in your wikipedia entry .  All thanks to your arch-enemy and former teammate.

Since Michael is a trendsetter, I hope this kind of speech does not catch on. Can you imagine next year when Karl Malone is speaking , as he  calls out all the all-star voters in 1990 that didn’t vote him a starter.  Or a few years from now Kobe Bryant calling out Raja Bell for the clothesline. Or even worse Shaq calling out Ostertag for just being a big oaf or even our beloved Deron Williams dissing Tracy McGrady for not knowing how to pronounce his name.  Hopefully this type of  HOF speech will end at one.

Meanwhile if I were Bryon Russell, I would milk it for all it’s worth, maybe think again about that return to basketball you were considering earlier this year.  This is his quote to Yahoo Sports, “I’ll play his a— right now, This is a call-out for him to come play me. He can come out here in his private jet and come play. He’s got millions of dollars. He can pay for the jet. He can meet me at the Recreation Center in Calabasas.”  I can see it now, a reality show Are You Better than Bryon Russell? A movie of the week:  The Bryon Russell Story : the Man Behind the Final Two NBA Championships of Michael Jordan. The possibilities are endless.

Finally to Michael. Why did you do this?  Everyone knows you are better than Bryon Russell, heck better than anyone you ever played.  You proved that many times even without the help of the referees.  Did you even listen to John Stockton, Jerry Sloan, David Robinson or Vivian Stringer?  They displayed humor, class and dignity.  Of course you did not listen,  after all, you are the KING.

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7 Comments

D. Chris Estey on September 18, 2009 said:

I have always had massive respect for Michael despite the fact that he broke my heart in to pieces not once but twice. However, I lost a lot of the respect that I had for him after his HOF speech. Arrogant, cocky. What the freak is his problem. He would have done better to just stay home with his bottle of Grey Goose and OJ.

Earl on September 18, 2009 said:

Jordan looks more like Barkley these days. He needs to get out of the golf cart; maybe walk a few rounds once in awhile. If BRuss is in decent shape, I’ll bet he could take Jordan. . .That’d be worth a $5 pay-per-view charge to me!

He could have used the time spent bashing players, coaches, etc a lot better – maybe thank a few more people that helped him to the top!?

Derrick Daye on September 18, 2009 said:

Thanks Deb.
For those who haven’t seen Michael’s speech…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owbYN3XstVQ
You be the judge.
Derrick

eZAy801 on September 18, 2009 said:

Who would have known!? That BRYON RUSSELL and his BIG MOUTH screwed the JAZZ in 97 and 98. We had a chance of having a championship banner hanging from our rafters in the DELTA CENTER/ESA arena. Could you have imagined if the JAZZ would have WON! When I hurd MJ23 speech and when B-RUSS came up. I was like O’NO! And to find out that B-RUSS is the main reason why JORDAN clown him in the 97 finals and 98 finals, is so FREAKY. I couldn’t believe! It all makes sense now. How it went down and how the infamous shot over B-RUSS was fueled by RUSSELL remarks 4 years before that SHOT. Its deeply depressing that RUSSELL messed it up BIG TIME with that CHALLENGE to MJ.

Go JAZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

eZAy801 on September 18, 2009 said:

good BLOG to. forgot to mention that.

Mal on September 19, 2009 said:

After his ridiculous push off, I didn’t think I could hate Jordan more. Then he goes and rips apart Russell (and in turn, Stock and Sloan too!) during his induction speech, and I completely loathe the man. Totally, totally CLASSLESS. What a piece of crap.

Dallin T on September 19, 2009 said:

Even if he doesn’t play Michael, Bryon got 15 more minutes of fame, which is all he wanted. I guess you could also say that he’s officially taken Craig Ehlo’s spot in Jordan-lore and is almost as high as Leroy Smith.

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