There are many ways to establish a legacy in the NBA. If we look at the careers of different legends that have played in the league, they have all had a unique path to success. But the one thing common between them is the ability to stay fit and healthy.
With the level of competition in the NBA, if an athlete’s fitness is not up to mark, they will most likely face a lot of difficulties to succeed in the league. Moreover, one of the best ways to stay fit is to maintain a healthy and nutritious diet.
Speaking of such legends, most fans will definitely include Michael Jordan in the list. After not seeing much success in his early days, Jordan completely changed himself during the latter part of his career. As a result, he won a lot of accolades and is still regarded as the GOAT of basketball for most.
However, during his early days, Mike was not the winner that he became in the future. In fact, before the 90s, MJ would certainly catch fans’ eyes with his insane individual performances, but team success wasn’t something that Jordan saw much.
Additionally, Mike wasn’t in his top shape as well. It seems like we have found the reason for it. Jordan’s former teammate Charles Oakley revealed how was MJ’s diet during his early days. Oakley made the revelation in an episode of ‘All The Smoke Podcast.’
“He (Michael Jordan) didn’t take a beating when I was there (accompanied by a dry smile). Detroit, and Joe Dumars, y’all were giving him some tough love (though). Man, we just bonded and we used to go everywhere together. On the road trip, him and me. To the airport – most of the time I ran with him. We’d go play ping pong, swimming, spades. I wasn’t cooking like I was, but my cooking started picking up. We ate a lot of McDonald’s back then. MJ ate McDonald’s every morning for breakfast. And before games, he’d eat steaks before every game.”
(starts at 26:30)
It was an amazing episode of the podcast, and this revelation by Oakley is quite surprising. It is great that Jordan improved his diet and changed his eating habits. It probably played a huge role in the success that Jordan during the later years of his career.
Apart from this, Oak revealed a few other stories about MJ too. For example, he revealed that Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley aren’t close anymore. The two superstars were once pretty close, but it seems like they have drifted apart for some reason.
