Michael Jordan has given Bubba Wallace the honor of driving the NASCAR team's signature car, his number 23, for the past three years.
After joining Jordan in 2021, Wallace earned his first career win at Talladega Superspeedway and earned three top-five and three top-10 finishes in his first year as a member of Jordan's Team 23XI Racing. . He went on to become one of the sport's most famous and polarizing figures, carving a unique place in its history as the highest-finishing black driver in the Daytona 500.
Now he's also a new father. Wallace welcomed son Bex Hayden with his wife Amanda on September 29th.
Wallace, a first-time father, said he checks to make sure Jordan is getting enough sleep.
“He keeps asking me if I'm getting enough sleep, and surprisingly, we are. Bex sleeps pretty well most nights,” Wallace told FOX. He spoke in an exclusive interview with News Digital.
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#23 Genuine Toyota Parts/Mobil 1 Toyota driver waits on the grid during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee on September 20, 2024. , Bubba Wallace. (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
For Wallace, it's one of the most empathetic ways the NBA Hall of Famer and NASCAR coach manages his best talent. But on the other hand, working for Jordan comes with a lot of verbal insults.
“He's competitive,” Wallace said of Jordan as his boss. “He's such a fun guy. You have to have a thick skin because if you throw a jab at him he'll hit you right back. That's the way I was raised and trash talking is half the game.” is probably one of the best people to do it. ”
Throughout his NBA career, Jordan developed a reputation as one of the most aggressive and outspoken trash-talkers in the entire game, and that didn't stop with his opponents. Jordan had a reputation for completely erasing his teammates with words.
In ESPN's famous documentary series “The Last Dance,” the former Bulls star and his teammates told stories of Jordan bullying his younger teammates.
Jordan justified his treatment of his younger teammates in the series as a means to win.
“People might look at this and say, 'He wasn't really a good person, he might have been a tyrant.' Well, that's you, because you never won anything.” Jordan said in the documentary. “I wanted to win, but I also wanted them to win and be a part of it.”
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Michael Jordan (left) speaks with teammate Isiah Thomas during the NBA All-Star Game at Orlando Arena on February 9, 1992 in Orlando, Florida. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
One of Jordan's other drivers even said he was told by the NBA legend that his sport was “terrible.”
Fellow 23XI driver Tyler Reddick said in an interview on Fox Sports' “Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour” in September that Jordan reprimanded him while the team was competing in the 2023 Dayton 500.
“He (Jordan) turned to me and said, 'Hey, you don't have any room to talk. You're bad at speedway racing.' He just kind of attacked me. , I wasn't expecting that,'' Reddick said. “When MJ points out that she’s not very good at something, it helps motivate her to do better.”
Wallace supports that approach as part of Jordan's team as they look to compete for wins in the competitive environment of NASCAR. As a former super athlete, Jordan provides Wallace with personal and professional advice, and he goes out of his way to compare each situation to find strategic avenues.
However, Wallace questions Jordan's actual knowledge of NASCAR as a sport.
“What it was like for him to come up through the league and compare the similarities with what it was like here. And I had just taught him the knowledge of racing, because he was “I think I know a lot of things, but there's a lot of work to do. I've definitely learned in this sport,” Wallace said.
For Wallace, this relationship has not yet extended much beyond the racetrack. Wallace said Jordan had never played golf with him in the three years they started working together.
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Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 23XI Racing McDonald Toyota, drives in the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165 at Chicago Street Circuit on July 7, 2024 in Chicago. (Ben Hsu/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“We like to talk about race,” Wallace said of his interactions with Jordan.
Wallace said he has not engaged in any competitive activity, including any type of betting with NBA legends.
Jordan had a reputation as a notorious gambler during and after his basketball career. Through multiple accounts, Jordan is even reported to have bet with his teammates on the outcome of pre-recorded interactive races that take place on the Jumbotron at the Bulls' home arena during games.
Wallace doesn't seem to know anything about that side of his boss.
What Wallace knows is that Jordan is the perfect guy to talk to about basketball. When they are at a team facility, one NBA team will have priority to be played on television. That's the Charlotte Hornets, a team Jordan previously owned but sold in August 2023.
“Since he was the owner for a while, Hornets games were always played at the racetrack,” Wallace said.
Jordan purchased the Charlotte-based franchise in 2010 for $275 million. Jordan sold the team last year for $3 billion to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, making a hefty profit and remaining a minority shareholder.
But in 13 seasons under his leadership, the team went 423-600, made the playoffs only three times, and never won a series. During the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, the Bobcats had the worst record in NBA history with 7 wins and 59 losses.
Currently, 23XI Racing is the largest sports team in the United States owned by Jordan. The pressure is on Wallace to make sure he doesn't end up like the Hornets.
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