Scorned reporter thinks Michael Jordan has a PR problem

A reporter hounds you to speak with a representative from your company. For one legitimate reason or another, that request is denied. The reporter comes back and writes something scathing, and suddenly, true or not, your company has a PR problem?

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lacy Banks did exactly that in his effort to arrange an interview with Charlotte Bobcats owner and former Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan. Banks wrote a column titled “Friendly PR advice to MJ: Open up,” which ran on Wednesday.

Banks’ major beef is that MJ is no longer the media darling he once was. While the six-time NBA champ was selling Nikes and Gatorade, he’d grant interviews to anyone, anytime, anywhere. It’s a different story now. Banks must rely on Jordan’s comical spurning to populate his column. “Since ending his playing career with the Wizards,” Banks writes, “(Jordan) has been media-mean in terms of granting interviews.”

Is he kidding? Has a reporter ever penned such a column full of self-entitlement?