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Authors: Pat Williams
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while. Jordan agreed. “I’ve been playing ball for three years without a break,” he said. “I need to get fresh.”
At lunch that day, Williams went for a run. Afterward, in the locker room, he saw Jordan, walking past with a ball in his hands.
“I thought you were resting,” Williams said.
“Coach,” Jordan said, “I can’t do it. I’ve got to work on my game.”
“In 1985, after Jordan was named NBA rookie of the year, he came back to Chapel Hill and said to Roy Williams, ‘I’ve got to talk to you, ’” said Jordan biographer David Halber-stam. “ Roy said, ‘Sure, Mike. ’Michael said, ‘No, coach. In private. ’They went out to the bleachers and Michael said, ‘Coach, what do I have to do to get better?’ No player worked like Michael.”
Michael had that rare capacity to be a genius who wanted to upgrade his genius.
—John Bach
The first Bulls practice after Jordan made his comeback to basketball in 1995 ended with Michael walking to the baseline, on his own, and running windsprints. Without a word, all eleven of his teammates joined him.
The coaching got better in the Eastern Conference, because we put in so much time thinking, studying and preparing for MJ.
—Jeff Van Gundy
HEAD COACH , N EW Y ORK K NICKS
Former Bulls assistant coach John Bach had a term for it, for Jordan’s perpetual willingness to labor at the game. “Vaulting ambition,” he called it, and what he meant was that every year Jordan would spend the off-season improving portions of his game that he felt were lacking, so that he could more readily play through fatigue, through pain, through illness. He improved his ball-handling. He became a defensive stopper and a perennial member of the NBA All Defensive First Team. He improved his shooting, staying late at practice, challenging the long-range shooters until he was good enough to shoot in the NBA All-Star Game’s three-point contest. When his body wore down against thicker opponents, he began lifting weights so he could handle himself in the low post. Toward the end of his career, during the summer he made the movie Space Jam, Jordan had a court put up on the set, which is where he developed a wicked fallaway jumper that became his latter-day trademark. When he found out Scottie Pippen could dunk with his left hand, he learned to do it himself. “Michael was always trying to figure out how to turn his weaknesses into strengths,” said Phil Jackson.
Michael once observed, “I have always approached practice as a kind of proving ground, especially with rookies. They might have seen me on television, read about me . . . and might think they know what I’m all about. . . . I want them to know it isn’t gossip or rumors. I want them to know it all comes from hard work. Every time I stepped on the court, even though I was on top of the world, I felt like I had something to prove.”
Success isn’t something you chase. It is something you have to put forth the effort for constantly; then maybe it’ll come when you least expect it. Most people don’t understand that.
—Michael Jordan
“We fight human nature in this business,” said NBA assistant coach Jim Boylen. “It’s the ‘Get-By’ Theory: most guys will work just as hard as they must in order to achieve success. Michael fought human nature. Despite his success, he never got comfortable or satisfied. He always needed more.”
“Michael had a rare quality—a sense of how good he would become,” said David Halberstam. “And he knew he’d have to pay the price to do the things he wanted to do on the court.”
Somebody asked Jordan, after he won his fifth championship in 1997, why he’d bother to keep playing. “Because,” he said, “I still think I can get better.”
The average person puts only 25 percent of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50 percent of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between
At lunch that day, Williams went for a run. Afterward, in the locker room, he saw Jordan, walking past with a ball in his hands.
“I thought you were resting,” Williams said.
“Coach,” Jordan said, “I can’t do it. I’ve got to work on my game.”
“In 1985, after Jordan was named NBA rookie of the year, he came back to Chapel Hill and said to Roy Williams, ‘I’ve got to talk to you, ’” said Jordan biographer David Halber-stam. “ Roy said, ‘Sure, Mike. ’Michael said, ‘No, coach. In private. ’They went out to the bleachers and Michael said, ‘Coach, what do I have to do to get better?’ No player worked like Michael.”
Michael had that rare capacity to be a genius who wanted to upgrade his genius.
—John Bach
The first Bulls practice after Jordan made his comeback to basketball in 1995 ended with Michael walking to the baseline, on his own, and running windsprints. Without a word, all eleven of his teammates joined him.
The coaching got better in the Eastern Conference, because we put in so much time thinking, studying and preparing for MJ.
—Jeff Van Gundy
HEAD COACH , N EW Y ORK K NICKS
Former Bulls assistant coach John Bach had a term for it, for Jordan’s perpetual willingness to labor at the game. “Vaulting ambition,” he called it, and what he meant was that every year Jordan would spend the off-season improving portions of his game that he felt were lacking, so that he could more readily play through fatigue, through pain, through illness. He improved his ball-handling. He became a defensive stopper and a perennial member of the NBA All Defensive First Team. He improved his shooting, staying late at practice, challenging the long-range shooters until he was good enough to shoot in the NBA All-Star Game’s three-point contest. When his body wore down against thicker opponents, he began lifting weights so he could handle himself in the low post. Toward the end of his career, during the summer he made the movie Space Jam, Jordan had a court put up on the set, which is where he developed a wicked fallaway jumper that became his latter-day trademark. When he found out Scottie Pippen could dunk with his left hand, he learned to do it himself. “Michael was always trying to figure out how to turn his weaknesses into strengths,” said Phil Jackson.
Michael once observed, “I have always approached practice as a kind of proving ground, especially with rookies. They might have seen me on television, read about me . . . and might think they know what I’m all about. . . . I want them to know it isn’t gossip or rumors. I want them to know it all comes from hard work. Every time I stepped on the court, even though I was on top of the world, I felt like I had something to prove.”
Success isn’t something you chase. It is something you have to put forth the effort for constantly; then maybe it’ll come when you least expect it. Most people don’t understand that.
—Michael Jordan
“We fight human nature in this business,” said NBA assistant coach Jim Boylen. “It’s the ‘Get-By’ Theory: most guys will work just as hard as they must in order to achieve success. Michael fought human nature. Despite his success, he never got comfortable or satisfied. He always needed more.”
“Michael had a rare quality—a sense of how good he would become,” said David Halberstam. “And he knew he’d have to pay the price to do the things he wanted to do on the court.”
Somebody asked Jordan, after he won his fifth championship in 1997, why he’d bother to keep playing. “Because,” he said, “I still think I can get better.”
The average person puts only 25 percent of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50 percent of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between
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