Father of boy, 6, in Michael Jordan viral video breaks his silence | Other | Sport
As celebrations erupted in Victory Lane, footage captured Jordan – a 23XI co-owner – seemingly placing his hand on the lower back region of Reddick’s son, Beau, before sliding it upwards along the back of his legs. The short 10-second clip rapidly spread throughout social media, with some describing the encounter as inappropriate whilst others argued that Jordan’s behaviour was innocent. During a Tuesday interview on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio, Reddick directly addressed the criticism directed towards the basketball legend.
He said: “From my perspective, I’ve gotten to know Michael and his family very well over the years I’ve been here with 23XI, and I don’t see what other people see when it comes to this. For me, it’s a huge moment; this is the biggest moment of my career.
“It’s a huge moment for my family and for his family, and I just put that off to the side and think about the look on (Michael Jordan’s wife) Yvette’s face and the whole family and his whole group when they got to victory lane too, and just how happy everybody was celebrating together. So, that’s where I’m at with it.”
His comments came after an incident earlier that day when TMZ approached him seeking his reaction to the interaction between his six-year-old son and Jordan. Reddick was swiftly cut short by one of his representatives, who said: “We’re not going to talk about that.”
The Mirror US has reached out to Jordan’s publicist for comment. Recently surfaced footage from the Daytona 500 offered crucial context surrounding Jordan’s encounter with Reddick’s son.
The video showed Beau being covered with ice during the Victory Lane celebrations, suggesting that Jordan was simply trying to brush it off the youngster’s clothes.
Nonetheless, Reddick highlighted that he relished the opportunity to deliver Jordan a major triumph in NASCAR Cup Series’ most coveted event.
He told ESPN’s Get Up: “For myself it’s a dream come true. But to be able to do it for someone like Michael, who believes like he does in my driving ability [is special]. Three or four years ago when I was working on where am I going to go in the future, to have someone like Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin say, ‘You’re the guy we want more than anyone else in the field to drive our 45 car.’
“For me, it’s a huge moment; this is the biggest moment of my career. To have those words said about you by those two people, it’s stuff you just never dream could become reality. And so to have this opportunity to deliver in the clutch moment and get the victory after coming up one spot short a year ago, it’s just been a wild couple of days really.”
Ensure our latest sport headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings.
