The late Bobby Knight coached the USA men’s basketball team for the 1984 Olympics. The Olympics were held in Los Angeles that year when Knight was assigned the monumental task. Michael Jordan was drafted into the NBA that same year by the Chicago Bulls, but even at that time, he was a key player for Team USA.

Coach Knight recalled his time with the Olympic team in an Undeniable interview with Joe Buck. He also unveiled why he had to threaten some of his players, only to get MJ to set more screens.

Michael Jordan could’ve had his teammates benched

Coach Knight had a dream to coach the Olympic team for USA basketball. He said that he wanted to coach for only one reason, and that was winning the gold medal. So, when a solid team was assembled, it was a no-brainer that he would be onboard. With his idea of coaching a team, Coach Knight wanted MJ to set up more screens during plays. He recalled, “I walk in and all of a sudden it hits on what I’m gonna do. Michael Jordan is sitting over here. I walk over…and I say, now, Mike you know how important screening is to us, and damn it you haven’t set a screen out there yet.”

This conversation was happening during halftime and the coach was trying to get his team into a better condition to win the game. When confronted, MJ came up with a response, using Knight’s words against him. He said, “Coach, I read somewhere not long ago where you were talking about me being the quickest player of my size.” Coach Knight was initially confused by this answer and asked MJ, “What the hell has that got to do with screening, Mike?” In typical Jordan fashion, he responded, “Coach, I’m setting them quicker than you can see them out there.”

Knight saw that some of his players were laughing over that answer from Jordan. So he walked up to them with a threat, a warning. He said, “You two guys thought this was really funny?…you two are in charge of Jordan for the second half. And if he doesn’t set four screens in the first 5 minutes of the second half, I’m taking you two…out of the game.”

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Coach Knight wanted to finish the game with 4 minutes left to play. With around 7 minutes left to play, MJ called a timeout, put his arm around Knight, and said, “We’re 7 minutes ahead of schedule out here.” Team USA ended up winning not just the game, but the gold medal that year as well.

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