One of Michael Jordan‘s strongest attributes was his confidence. No matter the situation or the circumstances, Jordan always had the utmost belief in himself. His former teammate, BJ Armstrong, on the Rich Eisen show, told the story of how Jordan once missed 19 shots in a game. And after the game, Jordan had a promise for the rematch against the Bullets on the following night.
“The thing that I’ll always remember from him and that he always encouraged me and others is to never, ever lose your confidence, ever. And one of the most impressive things with him and I saw him do some incredible things but I remember one night we were playing, where he had just an awful game versus the Washington Bullets.”
“I think he missed like 18, 19 shots in a row. I was just so impressed with his confidence that he didn’t hesitate…The confidence that this man had was beyond. This particular game, he wasn’t happy at all. He was normally bubbly, playing cards, he this or whatever, he’s being MJ.”
“But that night, he was just sitting at the back of the plane. So I thought ‘Let me just check on this guy’. I just said ‘Hey man, how are you doing? Are you alright? You good?’ And he was like ‘I’m good’. And I remember he said ‘Whatever that kid had in the first game, I’mma have it in the first half.” But the confidence to say that? I just watched him miss 19 shots in a row.”
The game that BJ Armstrong is referencing is the Chicago Bulls‘ road game against the Washington Bullets in March of 1993. Jordan actually missed 17 of his first 21 shots to start the game. He would end the game with 25 points, three rebounds, five assists, two steals, and one block, going 9-27 from the field.
This is the infamous game where LaBradford Smith of the Bullets scored 37 points, five rebounds, three assists, and one steal while shooting 15-20 from the field, and 7-7 from the free-throw line. As the story goes, Smith allegedly poked fun at Michael Jordan.
So, the next night, MJ would deliver on his promise to Armstrong, scoring 37 points in the first half of their next game against the Bullets. Jordan would end the game with 47 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and two steals while shooting 16-27 from the field, 2-2 from the three-point line, and 13-15 from the free-throw line.
The story got even more complicated, when on ‘The Last Dance’, it was revealed that Jordan made up the story of LaBradford Smith making fun of him just to give him further motivation going into their next game.
For someone like LaBradford Smith to embarrass Jordan, especially on a night when Jordan had a poor performance, was unacceptable. And he did what he needed to do to get himself to a place mentally where he could get his revenge.
This story just goes to show how far Michael Jordan would go to motivate himself and decimate his opponents. Jordan is one of the most competitive people in NBA history, and he would do anything, including making up stories, to make sure that he has the motivation to get the best of them.
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