George Karl says snubbing Michael Jordan was a team directive

Michael Jordan was left seething after a coach’s snub, now the man who burned the star has offered up an explanation for the move.

George Karl didn’t want to give Michael Jordan any added fuel.

But by avoiding him at a Chicago restaurant prior to the 1996 NBA Finals, he did anyway, as episode eight of the “The Last Dance” documentary revealed.

Karl, the then coach of the Seattle Supersonics, opted to avoid Jordan when the two men were at a restaurant and the snub left Jordan seething.

“During the Finals we go out to dinner one night, George Karl’s having dinner on the other side. And George Karl does not come over and speak to him,” reporter Ahmad Rashad said on The Last Dance.

READ: Fatal mistake Jordan’s opponents made

“He walked right past me,” Jordan added.

“I look at him and I say ‘really? So that’s how you’re gonna play it’.

“We went to Carolina, we know Dean Smith, I’ve seen him in the summer, we play golf. And you gonna do this? Fine. That’s all I needed. That’s all I needed for him to do that and it became personal with me.”

MJ after George Karl ignored him at the restaurant before the Finals: pic.twitter.com/fdBwspCNcX

— SportsNation (@SportsNation) May 11, 2020

The snub became a big talking point on social media after the episode went to air and Karl offered up an explanation why he decided to avoid the ruthless machine that was Michael Jordan.

“It is true. I had Brendan Malone on my staff from the Detroit Pistons, and he said, ‘Michael plays head games with you all the time,’ and he said ‘you don’t want to mess with him in the series,” Karl said on ESPN’s SportsCenter.

“Say hello at the beginning of the series, shake his hand at the end of the series, but during the series don’t let him use anything to motivate himself to be a better player than the greatest player in NBA basketball.”

The former coach then went one step further and said the series paints the picture that Jordan used the snub as fuel, which in his eyes was wrong, it was the Bulls defence that obliterated the Sonics. Of course Jordan says otherwise.

I told my team to avoid Michael during the 96 Finals. We reasoned he would find a way to exploit communication as motivation. I ignored Michael at dinner to honor the directive. #TheLastDance makes it seem like Michael used that to fuel him- that’s false. The Bulls D killed us!

— George Karl (@CoachKarl22) May 12, 2020

The Bulls won the series in six games with Jordan being named the Finals MVP after averaging 27.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.7 steals in 42 minutes per game against the Sonics.

Of course, in all likelihood, if Karl had of stopped and said hello to Jordan, the legendary Bulls player would have used the words he said against him in some way.

The funniest thing about Jordan getting mad at George Karl for not talking to him in the restaurant is if Karl had talked to him in the restaurant he’d have been mad about that too.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 11, 2020

Originally published as George Karl says snubbing Michael Jordan was a team directive