Jordan had phenomenal talent. He had phenomenal understanding. But he also had a mentality that I haven't seen. He had a sense of urgency every time he stepped on the floor.
One thing I can say about Michael Jordan, nothing was going to deny him to achieve what he wanted to achieve. That includes the Bulls' front office, the league, or whomever. The man just had an undeniable spirit about himself.
To me, that's the brilliance of Michael Jordan. He was an incredible, amazing individual player who matched his talents to the team, matched the team's talents to him, and he lived in the middle of those extremes. I don't know how you do that.
Who says a center can't make the pass into the post? Michael Jordan, effectively, was a post player and you saw with the championship teams players able to do multiple things.
Jordan never stepped out on the court to have a good time. He stepped out there to establish that he was the best.
This is to LeBron James: If you want to be the best, get rid of the comparisons. Get rid of all the comparisons that are out there. That's what Michael Jordan did.
He made the game look easy. But being Michael Jordan, and all that came with it, that wasn't easy.
In 1989-90 I became one of the group known as the Jordanaires, a.k.a. the Bulls. From the day I arrived in Chicago, I knew what everyone else on the team did: Michael Jordan was a phenomenal talent.
I always say, to this day, that the Air Jordan guy was great and God bless him. But I'll always just remember Michael, the guy.
So much has been said about Michael Jordan as a basketball player, but when I played with him, the Michael I knew was just Michael. I guess more than anything is that I got to experience the human side of the so-called gladiators, warriors and heroes that we worship.
