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The man and his game
'For the Love of the Game'
by Michael Jordan
(CNN) -- Michael Jeffrey Jordan retires from the National Basketball Association with the most impressive credentials any basketball player ever had. Ten times he led the league in scoring, the most of any player ever. His career average of 31.5 points per game is the best in league history. His six championships with the Chicago Bulls trail only that of Boston Celtics great Bill Russell.
Does he think he's the best? The greatest? "There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don't believe there is only one greatest player either," he says in his book "For the Love of the Game".
Keep reading to hear more of His Airness.
EXCERPT
There are plays that stand out in your mind, things you did that when you see the replay almost seems like you're watching someone else in your body. I remember one dunk early in my career that I saw on video a couple of years ago. I don't remember what year it was but the replay was in slow motion. I looked like one of those Apollo blastoffs in slow motion. I just kept going up. I knew I was watching myself, but I still couldn't believe how it looked. I remember thinking, "When does jumping become flying?" That's how it looked to me. When people would ask me whether I could fly, especially when I was younger, I always said, "Yes, for a little while." But when I saw that dunk it really did look like I was flying.
***
I never wanted to sign with Nike. I had been an Adidas fan since high school. In fact, I didn't even want to meet with Nike. In the summer of 1984, I had been flying all over the country for various awards banquets, the Bulls, and the Olympics. I was tired of travelling. When it came time to meet with Nike, I told everyone, my agent David Falk, Coach Smith, even my parents, that I wasn't going. I had no intention of signing with Nike and I had no desire to fly to Portland, Oregon.
My parents finally sat me down and said, "This is important. You need to listen to what those people have to say." I felt like I was dragged out to Oregon to listen to something I had no intention of acting upon. So I walk into the meeting and there's Rob Strasser, Phil Knight, Tinker Hatfield, Jack George, Peter Moore, and Howard White. Now I'm not pleased about being there and I'm barely listening. But Strasser got my attention. They were talking about giving me my own shoe and effectively redefining the entire athletic shoe industry. Strasser did most of the talking. He was a big guy, smooth, energetic, and motivating. Still, I was skeptical because I didn't even like Nike shoes. The money was substantial for that time, $250,000 a year for five years with an annuity, incentives, and royalties on all Nike basketball-related items. It was a great deal, but it also was risky because no one in the industry had done anything like that. Julius Erving became identified with a specific shoe, but he was never compensated the way I was going to be. Growing up, everyone would say, "I want a pair of Dr. J's." They were Converse shoes. In retrospect, they squeezed the equity out of Julius Erving without ever paying for it. The meeting was interesting but when it ended I'm thinking, "Fine, now let's go see what Converse has in mind. Then I'm going to sign with Adidas."
Before I went to Converse I talked to Bill Sweek, a sales rep from Adidas I had met at North Carolina. I told him what Nike was offering and said, "All you have to do is come close." In the meantime I had to see Converse, which was a very traditional, conservative company. Converse had Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Mark Aguirre, Dr. J, all the top players. I met with them at their corporate headquarters outside Boston. The place just looked traditional and I really didn't feel comfortable there. But I had some experience with Converse because we wore them for games at North Carolina and I felt obligated to listen. Their offer was pennies compared to the dimes Nike was offering. Their top guys were all making $100,000 a year and Dr. J wasn't even making royalties on his shoe. They were afraid of making an exception with me which I understood. Besides, I wasn't comfortable with Converse. I remember having bad vibes.
My heart was still with Adidas, but they never made an offer. They didn't want to take a chance on the U.S. basketball market because they didn't want to jeopardize the international brand. The decision was a lot easier for Nike. The company's stock had dropped by more than half and was down around $6 a share in 1984. Strasser had to take a gamble. And he did. He wanted to change the entire market by betting on one person. Nike didn't have a second choice. He was a genius. It worked.
***
What went on between Jerry Krause, Jerry Reinsdorf, and me during the 1985-86 season was something I never got over. I now look at that situation as a test, maybe the biggest test of my professional career. But it also gave me a very clear view of Krause and Reinsdorf. They were businessmen. They were not sportsmen and they didn't have a true appreciation for the game. They made business decisions and basketball just happened to be the business.
I broke the navicular bone in my left foot during a game at Golden State in the third game of my second season. The initial X-rays didn't show a thing. I kept taking treatment and trying to play, but I could hardly walk. A CAT scan, which showed the bone in layers, eventually detected the break. I couldn't believe it. I went home and cried for days. I was so depressed my father flew in from North Carolina because my parents were worried about me. After seven weeks, I was told the crack hadn't healed enough. I was demoralized all over again because I thought for sure I'd be back by the All-Star break. But I convinced the doctor to give me a removable splint instead of another cast. That's all I needed. I went back to North Carolina where I was taking a class and started speeding up the rehabilitation process. The Bulls had me see two orthopedic specialists in addition to John Hefferon, the team's orthopedic surgeon.
On February 12 I was back in Chicago for an evaluation. But Reinsdorf and Krause still didn't want me to play. We had a late-night meeting with all the doctors on a speaker phone. None of them wanted to be the one to say it was safe for me to play. So I went back to North Carolina and started playing anyway. I shot baskets for a few days, played some light one-on-one, then two-on-two, then full-court games. In a four-week period I played myself back into shape and no one knew a thing about it. The next time I came back the doctors couldn't believe the results of the strength test. My left leg was actually stronger than my right. So we had another meeting, same office. Reinsdorf, Krause, and I sat down at the table. Before anybody could say a word, I said, "I don't want there to be any confusion." I reached into my briefcase and pulled out a tape recorder and set it right in the middle of the table. Once again, the doctors backed off. Dr. Stan James told us there was a 10 percent chance I could break the bone again. That was all Reinsdorf and Krause wanted to hear. The team was lousy and they were thinking about a lottery pick. They were very careful not to say those exact words, but they might as well have written them on the wall. That's when the argument began. Krause said, "we're not taking the chance. What are you thinking?" I said, "My thinking is there's a 90 percent chance I won't break it again." But I knew those guys had a completely different agenda. And I broke it out right there in front of them: "You're trying to lose games so you can get a better draft pick." That hit a nerve with Krause. This was right around the time Tylenol capsules coated with cyanide were found. So Reinsdorf gives me this scenario: "What if I gave you 10 pills in a bottle and one of them was coated with cyanide? Would you reach in and take the risk of grabbing the wrong pill?" I thought for a moment and said, "You know what, Jerry, that's a hell of an analogy. But my answer is this: it depends on how bad the headache is."
Reinsdorf wanted a 100 percent guarantee, but I didn't have a 100 percent chance of remaining healthy when I broke the bone in the first place. Besides, if it broke again I'd have plenty of time for surgery before training camp. If I didn't test the foot now and it broke later on, then I'd lose another season. But I was in this battle all by myself. Even Falk was on their side. Everyone was worried about the Golden Goose while I'm worrying about life at that moment. By the end of the night, Reinsdorf and Krause agreed to let me practice at full speed, but they limited my game time to seven minutes a half. I could practice two hours a day, but I couldn't play more than seven minutes? These were the same guys who called me the greatest practice player they'd ever seen. Reinsdorf and Krause made up this ridiculous system that increased my time by a minute per half each game. It should have been embarrassing for the entire league much less the team.
One night we're playing at Indiana and we have the ball with 31 seconds left in the game and we're losing by a point. The night before Reinsdorf had called coach Stan Albeck and told him if I played one minute too long he would be fired. Now my minutes are done. If two seconds click off the clock, then my time rounds up another minute. Stan takes me out of the game. The fans are going crazy. They're yelling at Stan, calling him names. I'm at the end of the bench and I'm furious. John Paxson eventually hit a game-winning shot at the buzzer. But right there I knew all I needed to know about Reinsdorf and Krause.
***
Tomorrow I don't know what I'm going to do. I think about today. People don't believe I don't know what's going to happen next week, next month, or next year. But I truly live in the moment. That's what retirement means. You can design and choose your moment. I can design shoes one day and ski the next. I have created the opportunity to have a choice. That is how I am going to live. I am not going to determine what the moment is going to be a week from now. I've never done that and I don't like living that way. I would feel too confined. To me, retirement is having no restraints. I won't be retired fully until I don't have to do anything. One day I won't have to do commercials, or talk to a board, or help in the design of shoes. I will be able to wake up when I wake up. As long as I live in the moment I don't believe I will ever get bored. I am not going to mind being out of the spotlight.
There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don't believe there is only one greatest player either. Everyone plays in different eras. I built my talents on the shoulders of someone else's talent. I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era. Without Julius Erving, David Thompson, Walter Davis, and Elgin Baylor there would never have been a Michael Jordan. I evolved from them.
If I had been born on an island, learned the game all by myself, and developed into the player I became without ever seeing another example, then yes, maybe I would accept being called the greatest. But I have used all the great players who came before me to improve upon my game. I don't think I will live to see somebody score 100 points in a game again, but there will be players who evolve and move the game ahead. What could a player do to improve upon my example? They asked me the same thing about Elgin Baylor and Dr. J. And that's the beauty of it all. No one knows.
Somewhere there is a little kid working to enhance what we've done. It may take awhile, but someone will come along who approaches the game the way I did. He won't skip steps. He won't be afraid. He will learn from my example, just as I learned from others. He will master the fundamentals. Maybe he will take off from the free-throw line and do a 360 in midair. Why not? No one thought they would see a 6-foot-9 point guard or a 7-foot-7 center. But here we are. There are now more 6-foot-10 perimeter players than at any time in history. Magic would have been a center 30 years ago. Evolution knows no bounds. Unless they change the height of the basket or otherwise alter the dimensions of the game, there will be a player much greater than me.
I listened, I was aware of my success, but I never stopped trying to get better.
Copyright© 1998 by Rare Air, Ltd. All rights reserved.
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