Michael Jordan is undeniably the greatest player that the NBA has ever witnessed. While he is widely recognized for playing on the hardwood, Jordan has also worked as president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards. This was in 2001 during his second retirement which he took in 1999.
Fans celebrated Jordan’s return to basketball even if it was as a member and not a player. Although, there was one Wizards player, Laron Profit, for whom this went horribly wrong. Profit made a debut in 1999 after being picked by Orlando Magic. However, without even getting a chance to show his performance, he was traded to the Wizards.
And poof Laron Profit was gone 😅 pic.twitter.com/lAh8qSAT2a
— Wizards Nation (@WizardsNationCP) May 30, 2020
Profit spent his rookie season campaign with the Wizards, wherein he had 33 appearances. He had an average of 1.5 points, 0.8 rebounds, and 0.8 assists. After playing for the second season, he got traded again. Even though in the second season, he was given more chances to display his skills. Furthermore, Profit’s teammate Richard Hamilton revealed the actual reason behind this trade.
In his appearance on Showtime’s All The Smoke, Hamilton spoke about how MJ was the one who got him traded and the reason was surprising. Turns out, Jordan who is known for his trash-talk on the court, got the taste of his own medicine. Jordan has not only made one of the Bulls’ players retire early but also sent Profit out of the Wizards.
Richard Hamilton revealed why Laron Profit was traded
Richard Hamilton on the podcast revealed that he and his Wizards teammates used to trash-talk behind Michael Jordan. In his own words, “We used to talk trash to M.J. all the time (during practice), but it was only certain things that I would say. And Prof would sometimes say a little bit of extra stuff that…I wouldn’t go there”. Notably, Profit came back again in 2004 to play for the Wizards, and made 42 appearances.
He further spoke about how Laron Profit went a little too far with this which resulted in him getting traded. “I remember one time, we were playing in practice, and Prof might’ve hit a shot on MJ, and he was running down the court, ‘Yeah, you can’t guard me with them old-a** knees.'”, Hamilton reminisced.
This was the time when MJ used to practice with them before eventually coming back to the hardwood after his second retirement. Jordan being the president of the basketball operation had enough influence to take action against the trash-talk. Furthermore, Hamilton went into detail about how things went from there on. As Jordan straight away told him about this during an exit meeting.Hamilton stated, “He was heated to the point that when I went to my exit meeting—because he was the president at the time—I went into my exit meeting and he was like, ‘OK, Rip, you know, your man, your buddy … he’s outta here,'”. Michael Jordan ended up using his power as the president as well as because of the legacy that he had already created by then.