NBA: Michael Jordan used to sing to opponents to put them off

Michael Jordan shoots over Jerry Stackhouse. Photo / Getty

It's a well-known fact that Michael Jordan is Top-1 trash talker, all-time. There's plenty of evidence to support it.

There was the time he zapped all of Muggsy Bogues' confidence and rendered his jumper permanently broken by calling him a midget mid-pull-up.

There was time he paid Clyde Drexler the most backhanded of compliments by saying Drexler was a better 3-point shooter than Jordan chose to be.

And of course, there's the time he walked into the Washington Bullets' locker room with a lit cigar and asked who was checking him before the final game of an inevitable Bulls sweep in the 1997 playoffs.

The list goes on and on. You can measure Jordan's trash-talking prowess in razed careers, tormented psyches, and hinky jumpshots.

On Monday, former NBA small forward Roshown McLeod added to the Michael Jordan Trash Talk Stories canon with a tale about him singing Anita Baker to Jerry Stackhouse in the middle of a game:

"I just remember stories of Jordan singing to guys when he was playing. His number one song was 'Giving You The Best That I Got.'

"I remember him singing that to Jerry Stackhouse one day and just putting on a show. It was like he had a concert going on in his own head. He gave it to you every time.

"He had an answer for everything that came out of anyone's mouth. Very few guys were able to do that, but when you found a guy like Jordan or a guy like Kobe that could do it, it was a memorable moment."

The sums I would pay for Jordan to have been mic'd up while this was happening. It'd be exactly like the torture scene in "Reservoir Dogs."

Jordan backs Stackhouse down: Yes I tell you now, that I made a vow-- then he freezes Stackhouse with the Dream Shake, flushes a 10-footer, and sashays back down the court: I'm givin' you the best that I got, HONEY.

- news.com.au