Apparently, throwing ice cubes at a (now employed) journalist is akin to a love letter from the greatest shooting guard in NBA history:

MA: How did you cultivate a relationship with Michael Jordan?
JM: The greatest thing about Jordan? I could be critical of him, and he wouldn’t hold it against me. I came at him hard during that gambling scandal. I went out to see him at a golf tournament when all of that was happening, and I’m thinking, “This is going to get ugly.€ He sees me, and the next thing I know, he’s throwing ice cubes at me. It was his way of saying, “I’m pissed at you, but I’ll talk to you.€ And he gave me great shit.
Same thing when he was coming back to play for the Washington Wizards. I’d go talk to him, and I’d write, “Jordan told me this, and I think he’s crazy.€ The next day, he’d scream at me, but he’d give me more stuff. As recently as last winter, I went to one of his kids’ games—and he isn’t talking to anybody these days—and he gave me 20 minutes.

So if Charles Barkley dropped a sack of do-do on his doorstep and lit it on fire, in Mariotti-land, that would be like saying, “Jay, you’re good at what you do.” Which means that when Ozzie stood naked behind Jay, pretending to bang him, it was basically like a pat on the back. “Nice column, Slick. Now bend over.”

Mariotti Unplugged (Michigan Ave via Sports Prose)

PS – There’s a devious part of us that would love to take the time to research Mariotti’s columns and find out what this “great shit” was that Jordan gave him. Did he give him quotes? Background? Did he produce meaningful, must-read columns on Jordan? And ditto for the column he wrote after going to one of his kid’s games.