How Michael Jordan was inspired to by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to…
Michael Jordan’s desire for championships now defines him. While there were several contributing causes, Jordan identified one primary contributor in Sunday’s episode 4 of ESPN’s “The Last Dance”:
Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
The two are largely recognized for their winning-focused efforts to save the NBA.
Six years into his career, despite all of his early success, Jordan still hadn’t won an NBA championship. While Bird won the first of three wins in ’81, his second season, Johnson won the first of his five titles as a rookie in 1980. The notion that he wasn’t the victor and leader that Bird and Johnson were inspired Jordan.
He remarked, “(It) ate at me.” “It did. Yes, it did. My focus shifted to encouraging my teammates to achieve success.”
After the 1989–1990 season, the initial adjustment was a greater commitment to weight training in order to deal with the physicality of the Detroit Pistons, but mental toughness was also prioritized.
In the 1991 Eastern Conference finals, the Bulls defeated the Pistons sweepingly before defeating the Lakers 4-1 to win Jordan’s first championship. When his teammates saw him sobbing and holding the medal, they were taken aback.
Teammate Will Perdue remarked, “There were moments when we questioned whether he had feelings.” Or was he just a man who was entirely preoccupied with one thing? We had never witnessed him displaying any other emotion beyond rage or irritation.
“We were literally stunned to see those emotions.”
Although Jordan made it apparent in “The Last Dance” that there was another reason, it was undoubtedly partially due to the fact that he was able to celebrate the first title with his father, James, by his side.
“At last I fit somewhere in the category of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson,” he stated.
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