was notoriously hard on his teammates. Of course, MJ wanted to win and he felt that if he didn’t make his teammates work, he would never attain the success he has now. One of the key players that faced his wrath back in the day was none other than Steve Kerr. The Golden State Warriors head coach was infamously punched in the face by Jordan during practice and 

As Kerr explained per ESPN, the incident was actually beneficial to his relationship with Jordan. In fact, the Bulls legend felt it was necessary to issue an apology.

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“He called me later that day and apologized,” Kerr explained. “In a strange way, it was almost a necessary step in our relationship, in a weird way. And from then on, I think he understood me a lot better and vice versa. And we got along much better and competed together and I think he trusted me more. So it was actually sort of, in the end, it was all good. But we’ve never talked about it since. To be honest, I don’t ever think about it, but I get asked about it because it’s a unique [situation].”

In the end, Kerr and Jordan were able to win three championships together which just goes to show that sometimes, tough love goes a very long way.

[Via]