Michael Jordan is viewed by most as the greatest NBA player of all time. His impact not only on the sport, but culture in general, remains unmatched.
That being said, a lot of Jordan’s success is rooted in his general uniqueness. He did things and carried himself different than many other players, both past and present.
This week, an interesting tidbit about Jordan emerged online.
Specifically, the one major pitfall he managed to avoid that many of his contemporaries and those that came after him could not.
Jordan never got so big that he thought he could run the organization better than the front office.
“I’ll say this about him, he never came to me and asked for other players,” former Chicago Bulls GM Jerry Krause told NBC Sports in 2017. “He never came to me and asked me to draft a player. He never came to me to ask me to trade for a player. Never once did that happen.
“Part of it was he thought he was so darn good he thought he could win without them, I’m sure of that. (…) Michael was smart enough to understand the organization, and he understood what we had to do as an organization. (…) He never complained to me.”
Jerry Krause on Michael Jordan:
“He never came to me and asked for other players.. to draft a player. He never came to me and asked me to trade for a player. Never once did that happen. Part of it was he thought he was so darn good he could win without ’em.” pic.twitter.com/O1BI2Qk6bP
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) March 5, 2022
Obviously Jordan and Krause had a particularly bad relationship, so if this was said, you know it had to be true.
Jordan’s attitude on this matter serves in stark contrast to today’s players. One in particular, actually. And the success he enjoyed largely speaks to how effective his particular approach obviously was.
The video speaks for itself. https://t.co/JYC4W8yuY6
— Game 7 (@game7__) March 18, 2022
Interestingly enough, Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki recently offered up a fairly similar point regarding today’s game and the outsized influence a lot of players seem to have in team matters.
It will be interesting to see if future players opt to take more of a page out of Jordan’s book, or if they decide that the strategy doesn’t really apply anymore to the way things are now.
Related: Paul Pierce Offers His NBA Top 5 All-Time, Omits Kobe Bryant
Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
