In case you didn’t know: Michael Jordan was a great basketball player.
In fact, over the course of his 15-year career, he put on such a dominant display that many consider him the best. He’s a 14x All-Star, 10x Scoring Champ, 5x MVP, 11x All-NBA, and a Hall of Famer.
But among his most impressive feats is that time he beat BJ Armstrong (his Bulls teammate) wearing loafers at 30-years old. Here’s his story, as told by The Athletic:
“He takes off his coat, and we’re playing. I’m like, ‘You’re serious.’ Now, he has his shoes on. And, you know, cold weather climate, there’s soot, and here he’s playing and he’s got some loafers on. I’ve got my Bulls gear for practice and all I’ve got to do is put my sneakers on. Now, it was a joke, it wasn’t a joke. I’m like, ‘I know him, I can’t give him anything. It was for real. I’ve got to play now.’
“Before I knew it, he’s in a full sweat, in his clothes. We’re playing and no one comes on the court, but everyone is watching. I didn’t want to lose to a guy in his street clothes. I don’t care who it was. You’ve got to at least put on sneakers. Let’s be honest. I’m not losing to a guy in street clothes. I don’t care who you are. It’s fouls. That’s how it happened. He’s playing in his loafers, so the floor is all messed up. He’s scuffing the floor and we’re playing.”
The outcome is easy to guess.
“Oh, he won. He won. At the time, I was pissed. I’m still kind of pissed about (it),” Armstrong recalled, with a laugh. “And then I realized, the light never went off. Everybody was like, ‘How you going to lose to an old guy?’ I said, ‘It never stopped. That’s who he is.’ The light has never gone off, and it will never go off, because the score is always zero-zero.”
You've heard plenty of stories detailing Michael Jordan's ruthless competitiveness but BJ Armstrong gave another in this @TheAthleticNBA article on the 🐐's return 25 years ago. Come for that, stay for the debate about if the Bulls could've won 8 straighthttps://t.co/1qLkMD6HKH
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) March 19, 2020
At the time, MJ was preparing to make his first basketball return. We know all that he would go on to accomplish and do.
These days, it seems stories like these are always being told about Jordan. The guy was more than just talented, he was ruthless. Every day, it seems we hear about more about the things he did to prove it.
