Michael Jordan had a terrific NBA career, achieving things that a lot of people only can dream to achieve. Jordan is considered the greatest player in NBA history by many and His Airness earned that honor with hard work and fierce competitiveness that hasn’t been matched so far. The shooting guard changed the history of the Chicago Bulls and they will never stop being thankful for MJ.
He won six titles in the Windy City shared in two three-peats. MJ was just great with them but he’s acknowledged how hard it was for him not to win three straight NBA championships but to do it all over again. That has to be one of the hardest features to achieve not only in the NBA but the world sports and Jordan did it twice.
His Airness was a man of challenges and after he won his first NBA championship, he went for more and did a great job. Jordan revealed that winning a three-peat in the NBA was the hardest thing he ever had to do as a professional athlete.
Via Basketball Network:
“After we won the first two titles back to back, the only reason I came back was to win three in a row, which was something Larry and Magic never did. That was my only motivation. I was tired of being around the team. I had been there before any of them, so I felt certain seniority. But everybody wanted to take credit. They’d talk about how I never won anything until they came around. I wanted to see if they could do it by themselves, so that had something to do with it, too. I was just fed up with all of it. Phoenix was no problem, at least compared to New York. Charles Barkley was talking all his stuff because he thought he could carry the load. But I’ve been there, man, and that’s a tough load to carry, especially the first time. When the pressures on and you need a basket, but you’re too tired to take the shot and when you do it ends up short, you know you’ll be answering to the newspapers tomorrow. I think the load, the pressure of being in the finals and all the hype that surrounds every game, was bigger than he thought it would be because he hadn’t been through it before. Charles used all his methods to try and get his team fired up. He tried to carry them. He pushed and pulled talked about the championship being part of the Suns destiny. I told him don’t give me that destiny crap. It’s destined that you’re all going to have a long summer. But I was glad when it was over. Winning a third straight championship was the hardest thing I’ve ever done on the basketball court.”
After that title, MJ left the game of basketball to try new things. He played baseball for a year and a half before making a return to the NBA. Just one season after his comeback, Jordan won his fourth NBA title and the first of his second three-peat. Differences with the Bulls management made Jordan leave the team but he’s always maintained that he would have won the 7th title with the Bulls if he was given the chance.
We’ll never know that, but Jordan did history twice with his Bulls and nobody can take that away from him.
