LaBradford Smith tells his side of brief 'rivalry' with Michael Jordan - Houston Chronicle

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LaBradford Smith, like most basketball fans, has been watching ESPN’s “The Last Dance” every Sunday, but he says he’ll skip this week’s episodes.

He was there for a memorable story expected to be told in Episode 8 of the 10-part Michael Jordan documentary, and he doesn’t need his TV to tell him what really happened.

In March 1993, Smith was in his second year with the Washington Bullets after being drafted in the first round out of Louisville. Jordan was on the final leg of his first three-peat with the Bulls.

Smith, who led Bay City High School to the 1985 state championship as a sophomore and took the Blackcats back to the state tournament as a senior, was starting to find his legs as a pro.

After starting just five games his rookie season, Smith permanently moved into the 1993 Bullets’ starting lineup after the All-Star break and was beginning to flourish.

That led to a Friday night in March in Chicago where Smith had the game he says – 27 years later - “I guess I’m known for now.”

With Jordan guarding him, Smith shot 15-for-20 and scored a career-high 37 points. The Bullets, who won just 22 games that season, still lost 104-99 as Jordan led the Bulls with 25 points.

It was a career night for Smith, but he also knew it wouldn’t necessarily have a happy ending, because both teams were traveling back to Landover, Maryland, for a rematch the next night.

“I was hoping when you poke a bear, you don’t have to play him the very next night,” said the 51-year-old Smith, who lives in Kentucky and is a minority owner of 14 shops at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Knowing he would see the NBA’s best player again in less than 24 hours, Smith took extra precaution to not bask in his performance and not even speak to Jordan.

“I was mad that we lost, so I just ran off the floor,” Smith said. “Then we got in the locker room, coach (Wes Unseld) talked about the game and I left before the press came in because I knew we had to play them the next night and any little thing I’d say, they’d blow it out of proportion, no matter what I said.”

None of those precautions mattered.

The media, unable to talk to a quick-changing Smith, pressed Jordan on the presumed up-and-comer’s big game.

“I knew they asked him a bunch of questions so they already were throwing gas on the fire,” Smith said.

Jordan, known to hold a grudge and even make up one where it doesn’t exist for motivation, decided Smith had disrespected him with his performance and was hellbent on revenge.

Smith already knew what was coming, but it was confirmed during pregame when a couple Bulls players warned him.

“B.J. Armstrong and Rodney McCray saw me at halfcourt when I was stretching and said, ‘L.A., I hope you got your rest because Michael told us to take the night off and just get him the ball,’” Smith said.

It definitely wasn’t the news Smith was hoping to hear. That night, with a supposed point to prove, Jordan went off for 36 points in the first half, finishing with 47 in just 31 minutes as the Bulls blitzed the Bullets 126-101. Smith finished with 15 points, well above his season average of 9.3.

In the locker room, Jordan told reporters he was motivated because after the previous night’s game Smith had mocked him by sarcastically saying, “Good game, Mike.”

That was news to Smith.

At first, he thought the whole thing was a media concoction, but was shocked when he found out Jordan actually told the manufactured story himself.

“I didn’t try to argue about it or anything, though,” Smith said. “I’m trying to make a name for myself in the NBA, so I wasn’t going to go back and forth with him about it.”

Smith, who spent three seasons in the NBA with the Bullets and Kings before playing professionally overseas for five more seasons, has seen Jordan plenty of times since he retired and now they laugh about the night Jordan made up a story about a supposedly disrespectful Smith.

“We have friends that always joke with him, ‘L.A. had a good night on you,’” Smith said. “But he’s always quick to fire back, ‘Yeah, but what about the next night?’”

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LaBradford Smith tells his side of brief 'rivalry' with Michael Jordan - Houston Chronicle
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