Michael Jordan Was ‘Against All White People’ Growing Up

In a new book that came out today entitled “Michael Jordan: The Life,” the NBA hall-of-famer discusses racial animus growing up in Wilmington, NC.

Roland Lazenby, who wrote the book told Sports Illustrated that at the time the Ku Klux Klan was like a “chamber of commerce.” “As I started looking at newspapers back in this era when I was putting together Dawson Jordan’s (Michael’s great-grandfather) life, the Klan was like a chamber of commerce. It bought uniforms for ball teams, it put Bibles in all the schools. It may well have ended up being a chamber of commerce if not for all the violence it was perpetrating, too,” Lazenby said. “A lot of the context just wasn’t possible to put it in a basketball book. A lot of it ended up being cut.”

Jordan said he began to understand racial relations after watching the miniseries “Roots.” He talked about being suspended from school in 1977 after a girl called him the n-word.

“I threw a soda at her,” Jordan said. “I was really rebelling. I considered myself racist at the time. Basically, I was against all white people.”

Jordan did not speak to Lazenby for the book. The New York Post reported Wednesday that Jordan’s quotes on racism as a child were in the book, but his publishing company issued a clarification to ESPN.

“Michael Jordan made those statements in a 1992 interview with Playboy magazine, referring to a specific event from his childhood,” said the statement from Little, Brown and Company. “This is reported in Lazenby’s book, which is a definitive biography of MJ’s life and covers Mr. Jordan’s childhood thoroughly-but Mr. Jordan did not make those statements to Lazenby for his book. As stated very clearly in previous interviews, Mr. Jordan did not participate in “Michael Jordan: The Life” by Roland Lazenby.”

The book also reveals Jordan was on of only two black players on the baseball team and was called inferior while he played.

Former Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause (whom Jordan frequently butted heads with) told Lazenby, Jordan “remembers everyone who ever didn’t think he was going to be great. He remembers every negative story that’s ever been written about him.”

As principal owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, Jordan spoke of the recent racist remarks and controversy of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donal Sterling who was banned for life from the NBA by commissioner Adam Silver.

“There is no room in the NBA–or anywhere else– for that kind of racism and hatred that Mr. Sterling allegedly expressed. I am appalled that this type of ignorance still exists within our country and at the highest levels of our sport. In a league where the majority of players are African-American, we cannot and must not tolerate discrimination at any level,” Jordan said in a statement.

[Image via washingtonpost.com]