Former Chicago Bulls forward Scott Williams shares another side of Michael Jordan

Former Bulls forward Scott Williams said that Michael Jordan helped him have an NBA career.

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Scott Williams gave the Bulls valuable minutes at power forward or at the center position. He averaged 4.7 points and 4.4 rebounds in 13.6 minutes over 223 games across four years with the Bulls, helping the team pile up wins during their first three-peat from 1991 to 1993.

Williams also played with the 76ers, Bucks, Nuggets, Suns, Mavericks, and Cavaliers during his 15 years in the league. He appeared on the ‘Sixers Talk’ podcast and talked about his time with the Bulls and his relationship with Michael Jordan.

Jordan helped Williams get into the NBA

The three-time NBA champion played four years at North Carolina and then went undrafted. He credited Jordan with helping him have an NBA career. Jordan invited Williams to a scrimmage with NBA pros, including Charles Oakley and Rod Higgins, and it eventually earned Williams an opportunity to prove his worth and join the league.

“We find ourselves down one late in the game, I’ve got the ball in my hands - I believe it was off an offensive rebound because they really didn’t throw the young college kid the ball very much - and fire one of these textbook, two-hand chest passes that Dean Smith taught me right over to MJ, who’s on the baseline about 19-20 feet out and he goes up, tongue out of his mouth, patented Jordan form on the jumper, right up over the defender and cans the bucket for the win.

So he’s the one that makes a call to Jerry Krause leaving that game saying, ‘Hey, I think Scott Williams might be able to help us out.’ I always say I am the luckiest undrafted player in the history of the NBA, if there is such a thing,” Williams said.

How Williams sees Jordan

Williams was the only rookie on the 1990-91 Bulls. While Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Horace Grant were tough on him, he doesn’t think Jordan was a bully.

“One thing I will say is, Jud Buechler had kind of a big thing where he said, ‘Guys were afraid of Michael Jordan.’ Well, I don’t think I was afraid of Michael Jordan. I loved being his teammate. He was hard on me - not the way he was hard on Scott Burrell, but he was hard on me being a Carolina guy,” Williams explained.

Williams praised Jordan’s drive to win at any cost and emphasized that he led by example. He also noted that although Jordan was hard on his teammates, he cared about them personally.

“That was one side of him. He’d get on you. I remember having a holey sweater one day and he said, ‘I could play 18 holes on your sweater. Nine holes on the front, nine holes on the back.’

Just embarrass you in front of the team and stuff like that. But that was MJ. The same cat would call me up my first year in the league and say, ‘Hey Scottie, Juanita’s cooking dinner. Come on over. We’re gonna break some bread, have a few beers. Watch the basketball game on TV and shoot pool.’

So that was the other side of it. There was a double-edged sword to that, and everyone’s got their own little stories.”