Transcription
Alright man, peace. So those of you brothers that follow the NBA, you know that one of the most incessant debate points is Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James. And often times, over the course of trying to create a dynamic of supremacy for LeBron James over Michael Jordan, many of the NBA pundits on television, or even many of the walk followers of the NBA who loved LeBron James, they'll state that, "Well, Jordan was not successful in the playoffs early in his career."
Well, people who understand what they were watching, you know that due to Jordan's style of play, which was very different in the NBA circle, they had never seen a wing player who was that dominant, at least not since Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. In regards to scoring, and the NBA at that time, normally the championship-level teams had three to four Hall of Famers on those teams. When you look at the Boston Celtics, they had Bird, McHale, Parish, Dennis Johnson. The LA Lakers, of course, they have Magic Johnson, Kareem, James Worthy, Bob McAdoo, so on and so forth. The Philadelphia 76ers, of course, they had the great Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney, who was trending towards being a Hall-of-Famer until he broke his foot, Bobby Jones, so on and so forth.
Point being is this: in order to win championships in the '80s, you basically had to have a super team. So when you see many of these people engaging in these LeBron James versus Michael Jordan debates, and they'll state that Jordan's playoff record was one and nine before he got Scottie Pippen, they're being disingenuous. Because you have to understand what the overall paradigm for winning was back then. You had to have a team filled with Hall of Famers. Even the Detroit Pistons in the mid to late '80s, who rose to prominence, they had Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Adrian Dantley, Dennis Rodman, Dolan Beer, Marco Guire. All those players are, or should be, in the Hall of Fame.
Why am I saying this? Because one of the main ways that you could gauge Jordan's potency as an overall player is based off of how well he fared with other talented players against elite-level talent. And one of the main examples for that was prior to the 1984 Olympic Games, when he took the 1984 Olympic team with great players like Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin, still in college, but they were able to perform exceptionally well against the NBA's elite. They had a series of games that they played against the best of the best in the NBA. I believe they played nine games, and the 1984 Olympic team was nine and oh against an NBA team that fielded Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Alex English, like Bird, I believe Michael Gua was there, I can't quite remember, Walter Davis was there. And the US Olympic team, led by Michael Jordan, was nine and oh. So it proves that whenever he had talent, he knew how to make his teammates better.
So anyway, they're gonna talk about a little situation that happened between Michael Jordan and Bobby Knight, the head coach of the 1984 Olympic basketball team. And of course, I'm going to chime in. And of course, no book about basketball is complete without one Mr. Michael Jeffrey Jordan. And yet, guess who did not talk to you for this book? Well, I'm not really sure because, damn, well, we know what that's about. Michael Jordan has a ten-part documentary that's going to be airing on Netflix next year. And even beyond that, Jordan has always been known as someone who knows his worth, and he's not going to let anyone make a buck off of his name unless he's getting a piece. He's always been known as that person. So it is what it is.
We're showing, by the way, people went, "Why are you showing Bobby Knight?" Because there's amazing stories about Michael Jordan and Bobby Knight. Whether you even wanted him on the Olympics or the 1984 Olympics, Billy Packer tells the story. He's friends with Bob Knight in the college game, and Bob Knight comes to him and says, "You know what? I'm gonna stuff here. I can't, I don't want Jordan. You can't shoot. What can I do to guard?" "Okay, sure."
Let me also say this: one of the main reasons why Bob Knight was kind of against having Michael Jordan on his team was because in the NCAA tournament in 1984, the Indiana Hoosiers were the team that knocked North Carolina out of the playoffs, if I remember correctly. And one of the ways in which they were able to knock them out of the playoffs was to put Jordan in awkward positions on the basketball floor. At that particular time, the scouting report on Jordan was: make him take mid-range and long-range jumpers because if you let him get into the lane, he's going to finish, he's going to dunk over your whole team, that's going to raise the morale of his teammates. So the scouting report on him was to make him shoot, double-team him, make him pass out of double teams, make him go left, things of that nature. So coming off of the Indiana Hoosiers' success against North Carolina in the NCAA tournament in 1984, it doesn't surprise me that Bob Knight may have felt a certain way about Michael Jordan.
Bob Knight did not want a lot of guys on this team. He didn't want Charles Barkley on a team either. And he was successful in not having Charles Barkley on the team because Bob Knight was able to accurately appraise Charles Barkley for being a me-first player and not having the best work ethic. You know, it's funny, I just came across an article, I believe online, that I read from Jason Williams. For those of you who remember Jason Williams, spelled J-A-Y, when he was a great rebounder for the New Jersey Nets all throughout the mid to late '90s, and he was conveying some NBA stories about Michael Jordan, also about Charles Barkley. Jason Williams was a rookie, I believe, in the 1990-91 season, somewhere around there. And he stated that he knew that Charles Barkley was never going to win a championship because Charles Barkley would show up to practice late with hamburgers and fries and hand pancakes from McDonald's, and he would barely practice with the team. Now, if you let Charles Barkley tell it, he'll claim to be one of the hardest workers in the history of the NBA. Anybody could tell that he was not that hard of a worker because he did not give great effort on the defensive end. And Charles is one of the most naturally gifted players in the history of the NBA. That is why Scottie Pippen loves to relate the story that before he signed with the Rockets in 1998, Michael Jordan told him, "Don't sign with them because Charles Barkley is never going to win a loser. He does not work hard enough. He's never going to win." That's what Scottie Pippen says Michael Jordan told him.
But just to get back to the point, there were a lot of players that Bob Knight did not want on his team because I think that he had a preconceived notion in his mind about how he wanted to play, at least how he wanted his team. Yeah, because you saw how hard Jordan played on defense. When you're that talented, and then you play as hard on defense as Jordan played, he's going to win the respect of every coach very quickly. Actually, this team plays a nine-game exhibition tour against NBA selections, goes nine and oh. College, didn't imagine that today. It's impossible. Absolutely. And those games, at least most of those games, are still on YouTube. Once again, that US Olympic team, they went nine and oh against the best players in the NBA. And that was done today. Imagine if you had the best college players and they'll represent the United States in the Olympics for basketball, and they played against the best players in the NBA, and they went nine and oh. The best player on that college team will automatically be considered a legend against the likes of...
You know, Isiah Thomas related story, I believe on one of those Open Court shows on NBA TV, where he stated that before one of those games between the NBA All-Stars and the United States 1984 Olympic basketball team, he looked down at the other end of the court, and he saw the 1984 team warming up. And of course, they were going in for the layup, their dunks. And then he saw Jordan going for his layups and his dunks, and he said he just looked different. The way he moved, the way he jumped was different. And he went over to talk to Bobby Knight about it. And Bobby Knight told him, "Yeah, he's, he's different than any other player that I've ever seen before." Isiah Thomas was relaying that before one of those games in 1984.
And you know, not to digress, but as I've already touched on in other videos, there are a lot of reasons why Jordan and Isiah Thomas had the issue that they had. There were a lot of jealousy issues. Also, keep in mind that there was a rivalry between Indiana and North Carolina back in the late '70s, early 1980s. Isiah Thomas and the Indiana Hoosiers had knocked North Carolina out of the NCAA tournament the year before Jordan got there, in 1981. They were able to knock out the North Carolina Tar Heels, led by James Worthy. And then, of course, Isiah Thomas declared for the draft early the next year. Jordan comes in as a freshman, and they win the championship against Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas. Then when Jordan gets drafted in 1984 by the team that Isiah Thomas wanted to be drafted by, the Chicago Bulls, he quickly takes over the town. They forget about Isiah Thomas, and that makes Isiah Thomas even more upset. And then the Pistons rise to supremacy, and they're the ones keeping down the Bulls. So there were a lot of dynamics that were at work there between Jordan and Isiah Thomas.
He says, "This guy is going to be the greatest player of all time." Absolutely. And Bob Knight is also known for telling one of his friends, I believe the coach of the GM for the Portland Trailblazers, when they told him that they were going to draft Sam Bowie because, "We need a center." Of course, the famous story goes, Bob Knight told the GM or the coach of the Portland Trailblazers, he said, "We'll play Jordan center." I was in Washington right in there.
So the relationship with him and Doug Collins was always fascinating. And how Michael dealt with sort of aging was fascinating because Michael Jordan dealt with Doug Collins like how a guy would if he had to sit next to his ex-girlfriend on a plane. Like, "Oh, tolerate sitting down next to his brother for the next three hours. I had no idea that she was going to be here." That's what Jordan was like dealing with Doug Collins because Michael Jordan and Doug Collins, they had an up-and-down relationship because Doug Collins was so emotional. Like, Doug Collins was totally out of control when it came to his emotions. He was so up and down. When they would win big games, he'd cry. When they lost big games, he'd cry. And that was one of the things that Jordan was so thankful about when it came to Phil Jackson was that Phil Jackson was much more even-keeled.
So when Jordan went on to play for the Wizards, he actually was an advocate for Doug Collins becoming the coach of that team because at least he knew Doug Collins. But he still had to deal with his emotional ups and downs, right? But you guys had no idea why he was playing. It was all business. Moments, I think, in Michael Jordan's career, probably was at the end of it, his tenure in Washington. He had a streak of consecutive games where he had 10 points or more. This is not shocking to Michael Jordan fans. But then there's a game where he has eight points, and it's the end of a blowout, and Doug Collins takes him out. And probably, if that had been LeBron James, LeBron would have said, "Wait a minute, let me get two more points." Yeah. If you could do that over, he would probably change his mind. And Jordan went to them and said, "Do you, do you think I can't play anymore?" Oh, he's like, "No, no, no, I just thought..." Well, so you know what happens next? You know, Jordan goes on for 50-something in the next game. And, and he said, and what the break before that game, Jordan said to him, "So just look at me. I'll tell you when I'm coming out." So Collins just looking at him, looking at him. He's like, "No, I'm good." So that's, to me, Michael Jordan at his best, even at the end of his career.
And Scottie Pippen, do we have him? Month? And once again, the only reason why Michael Jordan came back was because he had an under-the-table deal with David Stern to try to help the NBA. And in exchange for helping the NBA, whose ratings were going down, they were going to assist him in becoming the new owner of the Washington Wizards. And of course, they threw him in a pole and stabbed him in the back. And Jordan drove off in a rage. That's why David Stern, peace. And later on, by hooking him up with Bob Johnson, that's how Jordan became the owner of the Charlotte Hornets, or at the time, I believe they were known as the Charlotte Bobcats. But there's a lot of racial dynamics that go on in the NBA as well. They try to act like the NBA is this, this racially conscious walk league. All that is, the owners in the NBA are just as racist as the NFL. But anyway, these...