Olden Polynice On Michael Jordan
CHICAGO, IL - MARCH 19: Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan(L) drives around Sacramento Kings forward Olden Polynice in the first quarter 19 March at the United Center in Chicago. Jordan came out of retirement one year ago in a game against the Indiana Pacers. The Bulls won 89-67, and Jordan scored 20 points.
Olden Polynice is probably best known to Duke fans for getting in trouble at Virginia for shoplifting and being scared to face Cameron when UVA came to Durham.
He ended up with a decent NBA career after that, playing for 15 years.
Obviously he saw a lot of things in that time and overlapped with Michael Jordan for much of it.
In this interview, Polynice says there were
some players that Jordan really didn't want to see,
specifically mentioning Ron Harper, Mitch Richmond and Vernon Maxwell, who he (and everyone else) thought was crazy. He said Jordan “wanted no part of” Maxwell. He’s one of few NBA players, possibly the only one, to have a section of his Wikipedia entry dedicated to
Behavioral Incidents.
Polynice talked also about his experiences with the Donald Sterling-era Clippers and some other odds and ends about his time in the NBA. All in all, it’s a fun bit of story telling.