Michael Jordan dominated the NBA for so long that people have crowned him the greatest player of all time. While he didn’t sustain winning over 2 decades like how Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did, the amount Jordan achieved from 1991 to 1998 essentially wrote his legacy down in stone.
Even after he retired from the Chicago Bulls after winning the 1998 Championship, Jordan would continue eyeing a pathway back into the NBA. He did so by accepting a part-ownership in the Washington Wizards and becoming President of Basketball Operations for the team. He returned to playing by suiting up for the Wizards in 2001 and played until the end of the 2002-03 season.
During his return in the early-2000s, Jordan faced a new crop of NBA players that had entered the league. This included surging forward Al Harrington, who was a part of Jordan’s old rivals in the Indiana Pacers. Harrington revealed how MJ trash-talked him and his Pacers teammates during a matchup where Jordan ended up scoring 41 points.
“He was calling us h**s. Come here, h**. Let me talk to you, h**. I’m like ‘wassup? What you gotta say Mike?’ He was talking hella sh*t. It’s Michael Jordan bro. Even when he was playing at age 41, he was one of the top 20 players in the league. That n***a took 3 years off.”
“I told him, ‘I ain’t no h**.’ He’s like ‘n****, you a h**.’ That game, he had 41 and I had 35. But they won. He sent me his shoes after the game, ‘best wishes, keep playing hard’.
Jordan would go on to retire at the end of that season as his heir apparent, LeBron James, was drafted into the league in 2003. Harrington played against both MJ and LeBron but firmly believes MJ is the better player of the two.
Jordan’s stint in the front office at Washington during his final playing days was unsuccessful, as he would end up being fired from the position due to the infamous decision to draft Kwame Brown. MJ probably doesn’t care anymore, sitting as the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets with a future superstar in LaMelo Ball at the helm of the squad.
