While he wasn’t the one who coined the term “traveling cocaine circus” to refer to the ’84-’85 Bulls team, Michael Jordan’s reaction to it on ESPN’s The Last Dance has ruffled some feathers.
Jordan burst into laughter after being asked about said “cocaine circus,” and he told a story about walking into a hotel room as a rookie and witnessing plenty of drug use by his teammates. And while former Bull Craig Hodges didn’t join the team until 1988 (and thus wasn’t implicated by Jordan’s story), he still didn’t appreciate MJ snitching.
“One of the things as players we call this a fraternity,” Hodges said during an interview with Chris Broussard and Rob Parker on Fox Sports Radio. “So I’m watching the first episode and I was upset about the ‘cocaine circus.’ That bothered me because I was thinking about the brothers who are on that picture with you who have to explain to their families who are getting ready to watch this great Michael Jordan documentary event and they know you’re on the team, and now you’ve got to explain that to a 12-year-old boy.”
Hodges also took issue with Jordan calling Scottie Pippen “selfish” for delaying a surgery during his 1997 contract dispute and claiming Horace Grant leaked information to Sam Smith for his infamous The Jordan Rules book.
“Then the Scottie Pippen part. Scottie was ‘selfish.’ C’mon, man, c’mon,” Hodges said. “And then last night with Horace, that hurt me. I’m letting MJ know that that ain’t right, dude. Horace did not deserve to take the fall for Jordan Rules. If MJ knows something else and knows Horace’s motive, then tell us how Horace did it for my sake, because I’m your teammate, brother, just like they are, and I’m kind of salty how everybody got interviewed but me.”
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