The stories of Michael Jordan’s competitive spirit are endless. No player in NBA history has been as committed to winning and truly dominating his opponents as Michael Jordan.
His peers found this out by playing with and against him. And Charles Barkley recently shared a crazy story from when they were on the Dream Team together that shows how intense Michael Jordan could get.
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“It’s when I knew Michael Jordan was crazy,” Charles Barkley said, telling a story from the 1992 Tournament of the Americas. “Michael is the most competitive person I’ve ever been around in my life. So, me, him, Chuck Daly, and David Robinson go play golf one morning. We’re playing Puerto Rico that afternoon.
“So Chuck says, ‘Hey guys, we’ve played 18, so let’s go.’ Michael says, ‘I’m gonna play another 18.’ So I say, ‘Yo, we got a game tonight.’ And he says, ‘I’ll be good.’ So this how crazy Michael is. We get to the game, and he (the coach) is like, ‘David, you got this guy. Charles, you got this guy. Scottie, you got this guy. Michael, you got this guy.’
“So Michael says, ‘No, I got the point guard… Michael’s kind of laying down. He looked up and said, ‘I said I got the point guard. He said some sh*t about me in the newspaper, and I’m gonna get it. And we looking around like, ‘Uh-oh, this little kid in trouble.’
“But it’s just amazing he played 36 holes of golf and he’s guarding this dude like its Game 7. And he’s talking, ‘Don’t you ever say my damn name again.’ And I’m looking at Karl Malone like, ‘Yo man, there’s something wrong with this dude. That’s how competitive he was.”
The story is a classic one as far as Michael Jordan is concerned, he was known to get amped up about matchups where he felt like the opponent had disrespected him somehow. And the United States would not only beat Puerto Rico, but they would go on to win the Tournament of the Americas before claiming the Gold Medal at the Olympics with the legendary Dream Team as well.
Michael Jordan Forced Chuck Daly To Play A Rematch After Losing To Him At Golf
During that summer with the Dream Team, Michael Jordan was playing a lot of golf. Another story of an interaction with Coach Chuck Daly shows how competitive MJ was as well.
“One day, his coach Chuck Daly and Jordan were playing a round of golf. It went down to the wire, but eventually, Daly came out on top by one shot. Knowing when to quit when he was ahead, Daly vowed to never play a round against Jordan again. Of course, the competitive Jordan would have none of that. He wouldn’t take his loss in stride and focus on winning in the Olympics.
“The next morning, at the crack of dawn, Jordan rang Daly’s room. Getting no response, he went directly to Daly’s room and knocked. Then he pounded. He wouldn’t go away until he got his rematch. He got it, and he won by a shot.”
Michael Jordan’s amazing competitive spirit transcended the game of basketball, he was on a level by himself when it came to all of this. It’s what made him the GOAT, and it’s also what made him seem crazy to his teammates at times.
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