Patrick Ewing said Michael Jordan targeted Larry Bird and Clyde Drexler during Dream Team practices: "All of us had to step back"

Yahoo

10-05-2025

There was no mistaking the electricity inside that Monte Carlo gym.
The so-called Dream Team — basketball royalty compressed into a single roster — had been assembled not just to dominate the 1992 Olympics but to redefine the very essence of the sport on a global stage.
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Yet, for all the gold-medal expectations and diplomatic photo ops, the fiercest games didn't happen in front of packed stadiums or under the Olympic torch. They unfolded behind closed doors, where pride and pedigree clashed in the form of intrasquad scrimmages that remain the stuff of legends.
Intense Scrimmage
According to Patrick Ewing, those battles were intense and deeply personal, especially for Michael Jordan.
"Everybody out there was just trying to show that they great enough and good enough to be there and deserved [to be there]," Ewing said. "We're all alphas; everyone on that team was an alpha. All of us had to step back and let Michael and the rest of those guys shine."
By the summer of 1992, Jordan was fresh off leading the Chicago Bulls to their second straight championship. They had just dismantled Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trail Blazers in a six-game NBA Finals, during which Jordan hit six 3-pointers in the first half of Game 1.
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But for Jordan, torching Drexler under the Finals spotlight wasn't enough. Monte Carlo gave him a new theater. It was no coincidence that Drexler, one of the newer additions to the roster and a fellow shooting guard, became a recurring target during those practice sessions.
Jordan was making sure no one forgot who wore the crown. He would go after Drexler with unabated energy, talking trash, playing with fury and reinforcing a truth he believed was undeniable: he was better. And he wanted Drexler to know it.
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Jordan's assertion
Dream Team head coach Chuck Daly, the architect of the Detroit Pistons' Bad Boys, orchestrated these scrimmages to push egos to the edge. And the players responded. The matchups crackled with tension — Karl Malone and Charles Barkley throwing elbows under the rim, John Stockton navigating among giants and Jordan drawing a red circle around whoever he wanted to dominate next.
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Amid the collisions and crossovers, status was on the line. Jordan had walked up to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and said there was "a new sheriff in town." Ewing, who had gone to war against all three — Bird, Johnson and Jordan — understood what that gesture meant.
"Michael wanted Larry and Magic to know it's his turn now," Ewing said. "Michael was playing all these mind games, talking trash to Clyde, going at Clyde… He just wanted Clyde to know that 'I'm better than you."
By 1992, Bird's back was deteriorating and Johsnon had only recently returned to basketball after revealing his HIV diagnosis the year before. They were legends, but they weren't at their peaks. Jordan, on the other hand, was at the absolute height of his powers, averaging 30.1 points per game during the '91–'92 season and leading the Bulls to a 67-15 record.
What made those scrimmages so compelling was the transition of eras, playing out in real-time. The Chicago icon didn't wait for the world to pass the torch.
He grabbed it.
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