Michael Jordan earned a reputation for being incredibly tough on his teammates. He demanded nothing but greatness from himself and everybody around him so obviously, that made him cross the line almost every day in practice.
While some teammates like Horace Grant don’t think that’s the best way to motivate your peers, others likeScott Burrell argue that Michael’s tough love was actually good to prepare you for battle.
However, it seems like Jordan is clearly affected by the way some people may see him, as he was clearly emotional during his interview in The Last Dance when addressing his approach towards his teammates:
“My mentality was to go out and win at any cost. If you don’t want to live that regimented mentality, then you don’t need to be alongside of me because I’m going to ridicule you until you get on the same level with me. And if you don’t get on the same level, then it’s going to be hell for you,” Jordan said.
His Airness took it upon himself to bring the best out of everybody on his team whether they’d like it or not. If they couldn’t deal with him in practice, they weren’t going to be ready to try and face the Knicks, Celtics, Pacers en route to the NBA Finals.
Jordan was heartbroken after seeing his team outplayed year after year in the playoffs earlier on his career and he just wasn’t going to allow it to happen again:
“Winning has a price. And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along 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 [other] teammates came after me. They didn’t endure all the things that 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 less,” MJ concluded.
At the end of the day, some may see Jordan as a villain. Others will justify him as a fierce competitor with nothing else on his mind that winning, but no one can deny the fact that it worked.
