The Last Dance

When I first got into the Bulls out of high school, I remember going to a party with all the teammates. I walk in and there are drugs (cocaine, weed), girls, etc. everywhere. He bounced and said from that point on he was more or less on his own. He wasn’t going to the clubs and partying.

When he went into the NBA, a lot of people were hyping him up, but he looked at it as if he was the lowest member on the totem pole and had to earn his stripes.

“On my first day of practice, my mentality was, whoever is the team leader, I’m going after him, and not with my voice because I had no voice, no status. I had to do it with the way I play.”

“In our 3rd game, we were down a little before the end and the team had already accepted the loss. ‘We’ll get ’em next time,’ they said. I was like, ‘Hold up, wait, it ain’t over yet.’” Jordan went on fire and ended up winning the game.

Jordan’s ankle had broken. After some time, Jordan felt he was ready to come back. The doctor said, “You have a 10% chance of breaking it again.” That was good enough for Jordan, but the owner of the Bulls chimed in and asked the doctor, “What happens on the 10% chance he breaks it again?” Doc says, “Then his career is over.” Michael said, “I’ll take that risk.” The owner told Michael, “I don’t think you’re understanding the risk vs. reward ratio. If you had a headache and I gave you a bottle of 10 pills, but one of ’em would kill you, would you take a pill?” Michael said, “It depends on how bad the headache is.”

At the end of the night, after every practice and game, he’d think about the ultimate goal: to hold up that championship trophy and be recognized as the greatest team in the world.

“A lot of people say they want to be like me for a day or for a week, but I don’t think they recognize that it’s not a lot of fun.”

MJ was competitive with EVERYTHING, on and off the court.

“I put in my mindset that if I don’t do this, then they’re gonna put him on the same level as me, and that motivated me to attack.”

“Winning has a price. Leadership has a price. So I pulled people when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates came after me. They didn’t endure all the things I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game, and I wasn’t going to take anything else. Now, if that means that I had to go in and get in your ass a little, then I did that. You ask my teammates and they say, ‘He never asked me to do something that he didn’t fucking do.’”

“When people see this, they might say he wasn’t a nice guy, he was a tyrant. Well, that’s you, ’cause you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win, to be part of that as well.”

Story has it that there was a game where a player got the best of Mike. Mike just wasn’t hitting them (baskets), and the guy he was guarding was hitting them. When the game was over, the other team won and the guy said, “Nice game, Mike.” Mike told the players on his team and said, “OK, I’m gonna hit all the points he made in the entire game within the first half.” So the next game comes around and he does just that: 36 points in the first half. Fast-forward decades later, a reporter asks if that player ever said, “Nice game, Mike.” Mike said, “No, I just made that up,” and smiled. He made that up and shared it with his players to give him fuel to make sure they didn’t lose the next game.

The Heat went into the championship against the Detroit Pistons. They lost the home game that woulda sealed the deal, so they had to go to Detroit for a potential two games. Before they got on the plane, Jordan had something to say to the team. He said, “Pack just one outfit ’cause I ain’t going here for two games.” The old burn-the-boats story.

Part of his greatness was that he was NEVER satisfied.

Successful entrepreneurs usually have something to prove, a chip on their shoulder, someone who told them it couldn’t be done or that they couldn’t do it, and that’s what fuels them. Jordan had tons of those moments. Past and present. He would find those opportunities, those sources of fuel.

For example (regarding the above), one game, after MJ came back from baseball, MJ and a few teammates went out to dinner and George Karl chose not to come over to say hi and speak to Jordan. He just walked right past him and didn’t say what’s up. Jordan looks at his teammate and says, “Oh really, so that’s how he wants to play it.” That’s all he needed. That was his rocket fuel. It then became personal. He crushed the next game and all their next games.

Every day I need a minute before getting the day going to down some rocket fuel. Ask myself: What’s my rocket fuel for the day? It could be old and it could be new, but I find something that’s gonna keep me fired up. Take a moment to think of it. Feel it. And blast off.

Karl Malone got MVP one year. Obviously, MJ thought he should have received it instead of Karl. So, what did he do? He used that as fuel.

The team was flying back from a game and MJ had a poker game going on in the back with a few other players for high stakes. Up front of the plane, a few of the players would play for a few bucks, micro stakes. Jordan walks up to the front of the plane and asks, “What are you guys playing?” Guy goes, “Micro-stakes poker, man.” Jordan says, “Deal me in.” The other player says, “What do you want with this game, man? We’re playing for dollars over here and you’re used to the big leagues.” Jordan says, “Yeah, but I don’t care about the stakes. I just want to say I got YOUR money in my pocket.” Haha, I LOVE this! “I don’t care about the stakes. I just want to say I got your money in my pocket.”