Another day of Michael Jordan pushing a golfer to greater heights. Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Eric Thomas are a few who’ve been motivated by the NBA legend himself. His Airness’ connection to the Ryder Cup continues through Luke Donald. He was a young amateur golfer at Northwestern when the Bulls legend was on his second three-peat. Today? They’re neighbors and still swing clubs together. Ahead of the Ryder Cup, the  Europe captain got some profound advice from his neighbor. It might be a little surprising that MJ looked back on the camaraderie and brotherhood with his old team while doing so.

We all know what the state of the Bulls dynasty teammates are since The Last Dance. Scottie Pippen is mad at Jordan, Jordan is quiet, Horace Grant is mad about being called a snitch, Stacey King is disrespected on Pip’s behalf, and fans are bitter about Luc Longley’s omission from history. Further, the fanbase was also left mad at the team for ruining Jerry Krause’s reputation, and only Dennis Rodman is business as usual with the Bulls. Chicago residents like Luke Donald probably never thought things would spiral like this.

Jordan has been silent about the fallout with the Bulls through most of it. Donald’s little revelation hints that he may have chosen to cling to the good times. Living near him in Florida, the golfer said, “Michael is someone I’ve been very fortunate to get access to and pick his brain occasionally about what made him tick, what motivated him, how he was able to get the best out of himself.” 

So what kind of advice did MJ give him? “You need your teammates around you. You can be a team of champions but not a championship team… You always need the people around you. You’re always stronger being a collective.”

Remember, this is the same guy who said he wouldn’t have won six championships without Scottie. Donald cited a piece of history that Jordan himself shared with him. MJ had won five scoring titles on his own offensive prowess alone when he realized the old adage, ‘there’s no I in team.’ After all, Pippen was the Bulls’ secondary scorer behind Jordan in all six of the championship-winning years. Dennis Rodman’s contributions as a rebounder and defender cannot be understated, as he went at 15.3 rebounds and 5.3 points per game in the three seasons he spent in Chicago.

The Bulls were not only led by arguably the greatest player in NBA history, they also had a supporting cast that allowed MJ to focus on offensive domination. Further, through rebuilds orchestrated by Krause, MJ and Pip were surrounded by pieceds that helped them go for six championships. Rodman, Luc Longley, Toni Kukoč and Steve Kerr joined the Bulls dynasty at different times. The camarederie however, seemingly didn’t last beyond their NBA careers though.

Michael Jordan’s teammates have a different perspective

The Last Dance revived the Bulls dynasty in 2020. Among the many things that year ruined, that team’s brotherhood was one of them. After being criminally underpaid throughout his NBA career, Scottie Pippen felt undercut once more in favor of Michael Jordan looking good.

Pippen famously told his former teammate, Stacey King, “Our game is a team game, and one player can’t do it,” almost echoing what Jordan told Donald today. What really became social media’s hot button issue was when Pippen said, “I’ve seen Michael Jordan play before I came to play with the Bulls. You guys have seen him play. He was a horrible player. He was horrible to play with. It was all 1-on-1, shooting bad shots. And all of a sudden, we become a team and we start winning. Everybody forgot who he was.”

If Pip thought MJ didn’t acknowledge it, he’s apparently clung to that piece of history and passed it along to Luke Donald as advice. He felt the documentary glorified Michael Jordan at the expense of the team, treating him and others as mere “props” in Jordan’s narrative.

Pippen, King, and Grant are the teammates who were there in the pre-championship phase and saw Jordan grow into a teammate. King, who was not part of the docuseries, defended Pippen throughout. Horace Grant is mad that the documentary made him out to be the snitch behind the Sam Smith book, The Jordan Rules. Jordan claimed in The Last Dance that Grant was the source for the book The Jordan Rules, which details events within the Bulls’ locker room. Grant denied this, stating, “If you want to call somebody a snitch, that’s a damn snitch right there,” per Yahoo Sports.

But both players felt their contributions to the team weren’t acknowledged either. Funnily enough, commentators outside this situation like to claim that Jordan doesn’t lose sleep over his teammates not liking him anymore. The rift is still there and no one knows how to mend it. And maybe he doesn’t. But it didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate them.