Hall of Famer Michael Jordan is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, but he wasn’t necessarily the greatest teammate. Former NBA player Brendan Haywood played alongside Jordan on the Washington Wizards from 2001 to 2003, and he spoke on the Straight Game Podcast about just how demanding he was.
“He was always demanding,” Haywood said. “Mike is one of those ones where if you can’t help him win, he has absolutely zero time for you. Zero. But like he’s not trying to be your big brother. He is not trying to be your mentor. He needs you to be exactly where you say you’re going to be. He needs you to do exactly what you’re supposed to do. And you got to handle yourself.”
Jordan was always obsessed with winning. He was past his prime when he came out of retirement to play for the Wizards in 2001, but that fire inside him burned just as intensely as it did during his time with the Chicago Bulls.
If a teammate wasn’t doing his job when he stepped onto the court, Jordan was going to let him know about it. Haywood recounted one instance here where a Wizards player partied with “His Airness” the night before a game, but then struggled on the court.
“I remember one of my teammates, he went out with Mike the night before,” Haywood said. “And that game, man, he was playing horribly. I mean, he was playing terrible. And Mike was like, ‘Man, see, can’t light the candle at both ends.’ At halftime, Mike’s coming. He said, ‘You can’t light the candle at both ends. If you go out, you got to be ready. You got to be ready to play the next day.’
“He’s like, ‘But Mike, I went out with you,'” Haywood continued. “He said, ‘But that’s me, though.’ Mike’s like, ‘Listen, I do this, okay? I can do [this]. The thing is, I can go out till 5 or do whatever I’m doing, and I can still be here. You can’t. You got to know the difference.’ So he didn’t care if you kicked it with him, if you stayed up and gambled with him.
“Whatever you did, when 7:00 came, you bets be ready,” Haywood added. “That’s all I know.”
That player might have thought Jordan would understand that he was struggling because they were out together. That was never going to happen, though. A valuable lesson would have been learned that day.
As Jordan said, he was very much accustomed to having fun before games and then locking in at tip-off. Magic Johnson once gave us the best description of just how incredible an athlete he was.
“He was the strongest, not basketball player, athlete I’ve ever seen,” Johnson said. “Because he can do just what you said. If I tried to do that, I’d be 0-14, no assists, I’d be dragging, and he tried to get me to do it on the Dream Team. He was like, ‘MJ, MJ.’ I said, ‘What’s up?’ He said, ‘Come on, hang with me.’ I said, ‘Mike, I can’t hang till 4:00. You have your drinks, get up, play 18 rounds of golf, sleep an hour, and then go and get 30 by halftime. I can’t do that. I know who I am.'”
Charles Barkley has also shared how Jordan played 36 holes of golf the morning of a game. He was just different from everyone else.
Jordan’s time with the Wizards didn’t go according to plan, however. They missed the playoffs in each of his two seasons, and he then retired for the third and final time in 2003.
Jordan averaged 21.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game as a Wizard. He was still pretty good, but he does regret playing for them. Jordan’s basketball story should have ended with the Bulls in 1998. It was the perfect end to a career.
