Back in June 2001, a few months before Michael Jordan made his third comeback of his legendary NBA career and suited up with the Washington Wizards, someone broke a couple of Jordan’s ribs during a pickup game in Chicago.  At the time, Jordan wouldn’t say who broke his ribs but the Chicago Tribune published a story about a week later ID’ing Metta World Peace, then known as Ron Artest, as the culprit.  The report made it sound like a fight had taken place but that was not true.  Now after all these years, MWP is finally opening up about the incident.  During a Facebook Live interview that ESPN’s Molly Qerim did with World Peace during his appearance on Mike & Mike on Tuesday morning, a fan inquired about MJ’s broken ribs.

“Well, you know, I was in a summer gym. R. Kelly would be there sometimes, Jordan, Barkley was there a couple times, a lot of other NBA players. It was really good games — tougher than the NBA games, tough competition. And Jordan was posting me up, so I was trying to deny him because when Jordan gets the ball, there was nothing you could do. He was gonna score. So I was trying to deny him and then he was holding me so I kind of tried to lift his arm up with my right hand, and I accidentally hit him in the ribs with my elbow. Then, I accidentally broke his ribs.”

World Peace also touched on how badly he felt about breaking MJ’s ribs:

After his ribs broke, he had to take off three months. That season, he averaged 25 [points per game] and I always felt like, if that would have never happened, he would have averaged about 35. He was looking so good. He had to take off three months and still averaged 25 points [Ed. note: MJ actually averaged 22.9 PPG that season.]. That hurt me a lot because I’m an MJ fan. I love Jordan. I love his defense more than his offense, and for me to be a part of something like that, that stuck with me for a long time.

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source: Complex