There are two things almost everyone knows about Michael Jordan, one negative and one positive. An indomitable will to win, which is arguably the main factor in making him the greatest player to ever grace the NBA. And a love of card games and gambling, something that has led to truly terrible speculation about the worst times in the superstar’s life.
There is one story, going back to his college days with his teammate at the University of North Carolina, Buzz Peterson, that combines both of these elements. It provides a peek into how MJ was always the person he was, even before he got to the league. According to this story shared by ESPN, Jordan’s need to win at everything he did was so bad, that he didn’t even spare Peterson’s old mother during a game of cards.
“There is a famous story about Michael Jordan visiting the home of North Carolina teammate Buzz Peterson; while playing a casual game of cards with Peterson’s mother, Jordan attempted to cheat while the old woman was using the bathroom. This is often used as an example of what made Jordan so awesome; he would do absolutely anything to win, regardless of the circumstance.
“And because the character in this anecdote is MJ, the story is charming. However, I doubt Buzz Peterson would tell this yarn if it had involved his mother and some random dude he met in Anthropology 251 (and if he did, the story would now be about that one time he brought a lunatic home for Thanksgiving break).”
The story indeed sounds really bad in the context of it being anyone other than MJ, but the raging success he enjoyed makes anecdotes like these sound a lot better in hindsight. What it takes to dominate for as long as MJ did at the highest level may not be the prettiest attribute to have, something that he recognized himself when he spoke about the price of winning, but it’s something that all athletes need to imbibe if they want to reach the heights that MJ did.
