Michael Jordan has always been an incredible competitor and even after he retired definitely from the game, Jordan continued doing his thing off the court. His Airness doesn’t miss a chance to trash talk people, even more, when they’re messing with his records and honors.
Back in 2017, the Chicago Bulls legend delivered one of his strongest lines against Golden State Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob. The Warriors had set a new record in the league, winning 73 games in the regular season, breaking the prior record set by Jordan’s Bulls.
MJ teased the owner during a meeting, telling him his 73 wins were worthless if they couldn’t win the championship (via James Herbert of CBSSports.com).
“On the collective bargaining agreement, I was on the labor committee and I was in New York having a bunch of dinners with Michael Jordan and other owners. There were six of us. Actually, Dan was one of them, Dan Gilbert. Anyway, Michael Jordan—people are drinking and having a good time and all that, but there was a moment where he said, you know, ’73 don’t mean [blank].’ He did it, Michael Jordan did that. And I looked at him and I just decided not to make a big deal of it. I said, you know, you’re right, we didn’t win it, we had to get better.”
During the 1995/96 season, the Chicago Bulls of Jordan won 72 games losing only 10. They held the record of the most victories in NBA history until 2016 when the Golden State Warriors won one more game, but they couldn’t win the title.
They were 3-1 up in the Finals but everything fell apart for them against the Cleveland Cavaliers and ended up blowing their lead and losing a huge opportunity to become the greatest NBA team of all time.
MJ knows that their record is good, yes, but not winning the title that year will always hunt them.
