Michael Jordan retired from the NBA for the final time in 2003 after his two-year stint with the Washington Wizards.
When Jordan’s time as a player ended in the league, many wanted ‘His Airness’ to take over from Jerry Krause as the next general manager of the Chicago Bulls in 2003. But NBA analyst Marc Stein issued a huge warning regarding Jordan’s potential appointment as the general manager of the Bulls back in 2003.
“If you are among the Windy City masses thinking it would be heaven if Jordan actually got the job, too, let us delve into our Seinfeldian dictionary and disabuse you of that notion right now,” Stein wrote. “Jordan is not the perfect candidate to succeed Krause as the new front-office face of Organizations Win Championships, Inc. Jordan should not be a candidate at all.”
Marc Stein further added: “Jordan is not like Jerry West or Bill Russell. Those guys were on a long list of greats from their respective franchises and didn’t overshadow the whole operation when they GM’ed or coached for the Lakers and Celtics. But Jordan is the Bulls, and he’s actually even bigger than that. Finally making some progress, after five long seasons in the shadow of a six-ring dynasty, the Bulls don’t need to reach back for some 1990s magic.”
As Stein mentioned in his article, prior to Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls weren’t a successful NBA franchise. But MJ made the Bulls the best team in the league during his tenure with the organization.
He led them to six NBA Championships, among other various achievements. Thanks to those accolades, Jordan undoubtedly deserves the top spot in the Bull’s all-time GOAT pyramid.
But as good as a player Jordan was, he failed to find that success as an executive in the league. Not that Mike didn’t give it a try; in fact, he became the president of basketball operations and part-owner of the Wizards in 2000.
Michael Jordan Was Never Made For An Executive Role
One would assume the greatest basketball player of all time would automatically be amazing in a front-office role too. But that’s far from what happened when Jordan took over these duties for the Washington Wizards in 2000.
So much so that after serving as the president of the team from January 2000 to September 2001, and after a string of bad decisions, Jordan announced his return to the league as a player.
To this date, Michael Jordan considers his return to play for the Wizards as one of the biggest mistakes of his life.
“I think it exposed me to a lot of decision-making. One of the bad decisions I made was to go back and play,” Jordan said. “Even though I was soothing an itch that I had, I also thought I was being innovative in my job by going down and evaluating the talent firsthand. I thought it would be a good idea to play against them, see what their tendencies were and what we were paying for. But at the same time, I became more critical of them because of the way I played the game and the way I’d approached the game, and the players didn’t respond to that. They didn’t respond to the desire that I had when I was playing. I may just have gotten too close to see or maybe too critical of certain actions of the players. That was one of the biggest mistakes that I feel I made in Washington.”
Keeping MJ’s assessment of his time as an executive for the Wizards in mind, he would have likely failed with the Bulls as well. After all, Jordan would try to lead the Bulls back to their glory days and, in the process, would run the risk of scaring the players with his insanely tough mentality.
After moving on from that chapter of his life, Mike brought the Charlotte Hornets in February 2010. Unfortunately, like his stint with the Wizards, Jordan couldn’t bring the same level of success to the Hornets as an owner.
With that being said, MJ is reportedly looking to sell his majority ownership of the team. Who knows what’s next for the GOAT? Will he try to purchase another NBA franchise? Or will he simply enjoy his retired life? Only Jordan can provide an answer to these questions.
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