Defeating Michael Jordan — an accomplishment for any NBA star, but a story for a lifetime for a non-basketball player. Yes, it’s true, a non-basketball player once emerged victorious against the Chicago Bulls legend. And it was none other than God’s Not Dead star Dean Cain. The 5’11” actor revealed the instance when he got a chance to play against the 6x NBA champ. During his recent appearance on the Crosswalk Talk, Cain recalled the time he was shooting for Lois & Clark. He further mentioned that this was around the same time that Mike was shooting for Space Jam at the Warner Bros Studios.

The Hollywood star mentioned the 6x NBA champ had built a whole basketball gym of sorts using some of the parking space. Notably, this was also the time that His Airness was coming back from his first retirement. The popular opinion after his Bulls’ loss in 1995 was that Jordan had got a bit rusty. And it seemed that he was in no mood to miss out on practice even during the shoots. As recalled by Cain, the Bulls icon used to practice with players like Reggie Miller and Charles Barkley.

While the basketball gym was accessible to limited people only, Cain found his way in. “He (Mike) would allow a couple of us to come in, actor types, and play…They were all in there. All these ball players, all these NBA greats, college up and coming guys. And we would run these five on five games. And if you lost, you had to sit down and Mike would run and run and run,” Cain said on the Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews. He further mentioned that during a particular game, he had 3 baskets already and Mike was like, “Somebody wants to guard him?”. But, the ball found its way to the 5’11” star and he once again sunk it in. Subsequently, Michael Jordan had to sit down.

As per Cain, MJ quite didn’t like it. “And somebody asked him about it afterward…They were like, ‘I heard Dean Cain beat you in a basketball game’. He’s like, ‘No, no, no, no. Dean didn’t beat me. His team, they won, but Dean didn’t beat me’. And that’s the truth,” Cain recalled. But as competitive as MJ is, this was obviously not it for the 6x NBA champ. Cain recollected that not only MJ trash-talked him in the next game, but never let him win another game on that court.

Some other instances reflecting Michael Jordan’s pure competitive nature

The list is quite long, as anytime anybody would trash-talk the Bulls legend, his competitive switch would be triggered. From Darrick Martin to Kevin Garnett, there have been many who regretted trash-talking the 14x All-Star. However, it was not as if His Airness never initiated it. In fact, the 6x NBA champ was quite a trash talker himself, which was also a part of his competitive nature. One such popular instance involves Mike trash-talking the player he probably considered his only worthy opponent.

Yes, the 6x NBA champ trash talked Kobe Bryant, and that too at a friendly dinner. “The last time we had dinner, he was talking about, ‘my year in 1991 versus your peak year, I would have kicked your ass,” Bryant revealed on Jimmy Kimmel’s show in 2018. But, this does not change the fact that MJ considered Bryant as a younger brother. No wonder that despite being fiercely competitive himself, Black Mamba diverted the conversation, as recalled by him.

Yet another instance of how extreme MJ could be out of competitiveness is when even the former US President could not save himself from Mike’s trash talk. The incident goes back to the time MJ was in a golf tournament that also featured former President Bill Clinton. His Airness challenged the retired politician to not just shoot under 100 for the round but to play at a higher difficulty.

“You’re going to play from the little-girls’ tee?” Jordan said to Bill as per an article by Vulture. Notably, this came after he saw the former president setting up his shot from where most average male golfers hit. Subsequently, Clinton moved back to the area from where the usual pros hit and broke 100 for the day. It’s clear that you could win against MJ for once, but not after you have triggered his competitive switch.

Stay tuned for more such updates. And join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.