Michael Jordan’s competitive fire never left him, even if he was at the tail end of his career or during his brief retirement in Washington.

If there’s one thing we know about Michael Jordan, he doesn’t take trash talk lightly — whether from competitors or teammates. The 6x champion said in his documentary “The Last Dance” that he takes almost everything personally. Whether it was Goerge Karl ignoring him at a restaurant, Magic johnson doubting him, or Karl Malone winning the 1997 MVP instead of him, Jordan always found a way to respond and make his competitors look like fools.

Even in retirement

Jordan’s competitive fire never left him, even if he was at the tail end of his career or during his brief retirement in Washington. When Jordan took a 3-year break after winning his last championship with the Chicago Bulls, he took over as president of basketball operations for the Wizards. Even as the big boss, MJ couldn’t stand it when his players would talk smack to his face (speaking of, LaMelo Ball better take note).

One time, Jordan’s player Laron Profit hit a shot in his face and yelled out:

 “‘Yeah, you can’t guard me with them old-ass knees!‘

“And I’m like ‘oh! Stop! Time-out! You don’t say that to the GOAT,” Profit’s teammate Richard Hamilton who also played for Jordan’s Wizards, said in his appearance at the All The Smoke podcast.

“MJ was heated. I mean, he was heated to the point that when I went to my exit-meeting, cause you know he was the president at the time, he was like ‘Ok Rip, your man, your buddy…’ cause he ended up trading Prof that summer ‘He’s out of here! You gon’ be there by yourself….‘

I was like ‘M, I don’t want no problems,” Hamilton added.

Power abuse or fair game?

In retrospect, Profit’s trash talk was undoubtedly a questionable choice. Even if it’s all part of the game, it’s safe to say that Profit should’ve talked trash to Hamilton instead. But one can also argue that Jordan shouldn’t have taken Profit’s jab too seriously to the point that he ended up shipping him out of Washington. Whatever the verdict, at the end of the day, MJ was president of basketball operations, so his final say had to be respected by all.

It’s also important to point out that Profit wasn’t worth keeping on the roster anyway. After playing two years with the Wizards and putting up underwhelming numbers (3.0 points, 1.7 assists, and 1.3 rebounds in 68 games), the shooting guard eventually had to take his talents overseas. Profit returned to the Wizards after spending 3 seasons in Italy and China but barely made an impact in his second stint with Washington.

As for Jordan, he can also say that his Wizard’s tenure was much better than whatever Profit had. In Jordan’s last two years in Washington, he still put up 21.2 points, 4.4 assists, and 5.9 rebounds and was an All-Star in both years.So suffice it to say that Jordan (as the president and superior player) had reasons to kick Profit off his team — with or without the trash talking involved.