THE MIND OF MICHAEL JORDAN - OBSESSION

I just do it because that's who I am, that's how I played the game that was probably Tali, if you don't want to play that way, don't play that way Britt, you know basketball is my love, it always has been and I can't. Have I ever imagined an end to something like that, yes, that passion I have for the game until I die and I'm gone until that's when I'm fine, it could wait, I'm in no hurry, what does triumph mean? What do you associate with winning the triumph? All the time waiting for three is enough, isn't it?

As long as you compete, you know it's always great to win, that's why you compete and I think we won't try to do this for the fourth time, you know, but right now in the third hunger you still have, but now you're giving four because every time you win you Takes away a little of that hunger. You know that is a challenge in itself. You know it's a battle inside your

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to find a challenge to face. to the same place you've been five times before, you know, and that's hard, you know, when people say, well, the first one was the hardest, not the last, so it's because you're fighting with yourself if you really I can explain why I said it more than any other athlete, because many times I had to fight with myself to continue challenging myself.

You know, that was the reason why I would say the biggest battle was that I wasn't myself, because when you reach a certain pinnacle, you have to find some ways to keep fighting for a B in the game. Do you think you have a problem with the game? No, because I can stop playing. I have a competition problem. A competitive problem. Now we can compete for a dollar. compete for ten dollars or whatever, but it's the amount of computing, it's not based on who can pay, how much they can pay, it's not about who can pay it, if you just say, let's play for ten dollars, you wouldn't have that with you, No. to play, I didn't pay, I mean it was just a matter of the competition in Ireland, I enjoyed it.

Kevin used to run practices and put me in the starting five and we know he would make it competitive where the underdog. The team has to run, so now we're the winning team and halfway through the game, halfway through, he would switch me to the losing team, so I take it as competitive, but you try to test me and nine out of every ten times. The second team would come back and win no matter what they did and you still want to do it as a professional when you leave the Basque Country. Yes, a lot of people say they couldn't do it, which gives me more energy to try to do it.

You know, it just motivates me when people say I can't do anything, which means I'm going to try to achieve it even more. My competitive work is much better than anyone else's I've ever met. You know, I think I thrive on that, I think that's my biggest motivation in life, you know, competing, you know, finding different competencies and certain things in life and trying to overcome that, you know, being positive or negative, but still I have to meet someone who is just competitive like me, you know, and I feel very confident in my competitive work. I just think I have a habit of working at it, I was always taught that to achieve the goal you want in life, you have to work hard to achieve it. so far you just know that you have that in

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determination you know what your motives are what your ambitions were from the beginning you know it's been a lot of soul searching in terms of seasonality it's easy to sit back and say well, they gave me The best I can is that I'm tired, you know someone else has to do it or whatever.

I didn't take that approach. I thought positively and said, "Whatever I can do, every inch of energy I have, I'll try." to keep this team, I mean, if you give up the negative, you know, then I didn't want to give up, you know, no matter how sick I was, I was tired, you know, I had low energy, I felt that obligation. I know my team to the city of Chicago to go out and give that extra effort so we can be here for the fifth championship. What has the transition been like from college to the Olympic experience and the NBA?

Well, I think it was nice. easy, you know, I think the Olympics were kind of pre-professional, they were fast-paced, they were physical and that's the type of NBA game and you know, come on, this love is a new beginning for me and I had to start from the to the bottom and keep moving up, so I think the hard work is ahead and I'm willing to take on that challenge and go out and play the best I can to carry this team, if you have to, I hope you don't. I have to do it, but I'm the type of player that believes everything I have on the court and I hope it's enough.

I was defeated by the physicality of what was happening within the game, you know, and I didn't have to. Competing with him and he winces in pain, that's when I really started to physically strengthen my body and indulge in that kind of beating for that yawn. I got stronger, stronger, stronger, stronger, stronger, because that became as important as anything else. I really said, understand. To me, it's just normal, but then you have to go to another level to be above normal. What motivates me is the unknown. Nobody knows. You know everyone can speculate, but no one really knows.

And then when you look at my career from you. I know high school all the way to the pros, no one I didn't know myself, you know, but I didn't let that stop me, you know, yeah, I let that motivate me more than anything else for so long, that's unknown. It means I have a chance, yes, and that's how I continued my entire career. Oh, I guess if you're not nervous, then you shouldn't be. There is a feeling of nervousness because we are starting to venture down an alley we have not been before. seen for a long time, you know and I think nervousness brings excitement, these are the games that you know Coach Smith is determined, you know, these are the fun games, you know when the anticipation is so high and the expectation is to go out and play hard. game and you know, let whoever worked the hardest on the basketball court decide to win and we're going to win and it's no different, no one said the Chicago Bulls are immune to this.

I think this is a dead check person, yes, in a way. I liked it, my Chrisboy advised me to go to an Air Force Academy because he felt that after finishing college he would have a job. I told him no, I don't want to go down that path, so I decided to go to college in North Carolina, a lot of people don't. I didn't expect it to do so well, but I guess it was a challenge that I faced and sometimes you have to face those challenges and see what happens. I'm not giving up this game because of what the media has done to me or what other people have done to me. made for me I will leave this game because my skills are diminished I can't find the challenges to keep trying my love my love will always be there but my problem will let me go because someone else is going to kick me out I believe in old terms and I don't think many athletes have I had that opportunity to do it and that's what I want to do, whatever comes from that moment.

Well, I just tried. They made me work on both the offensive and defensive sides. and it's always cool to face challenges like that and just see how you stack up against some of the top two point guards in the league and I think when our team wins it really puts pressure on them because they haven't really had the help that I've had on my offense has been. as good as the defensive end, so I'm happy with the way I played against those two guys. I mean, it's just a game and I'm pretty sure they were excited.

He had to compete against three years of playing solid basketball Scottie Pippen. I have played basketball for almost twelve and eight months and now you know that it took its toll on us, but you know that we had a lot of desire and determination to get to this. point that we were not going to give up at least if we were going to fall, we will fall fighting with all the energy we had, we are going to get on the basketball court, finish things, you know, it was difficult for us, on the other hand, I was more . competitive than it ever was because I wanted to win more than ever, you know, because of some of the bumps in the road for a competitive junkie like me.

Golf is a great solution because it hits you in the face every time you think you've done it. I accomplished something that for me takes over a lot of that energy and that competitiveness in basketball. Do you sometimes think that the way you play could shorten your career because you play too hard? You are the core of success in Chicago and I don't mean to embarrass you or put you on the spot so that you have to insult your teammates, but you have to play very hard, does that hurt you physically? No, because when I play, I play hard all the time, you know, there's nothing that turns you on. here turn it off here it's just 110 percent at all times so you know if I've burned out, I've burned out, that means my career is short.

I'm going to play golf somewhere, yeah, I never get hit, it's all out, go out there and do the best you can. and many people worry that I will burn out. I never had time to worry because it evolved into more of a mental challenge for me than a physical one, you know, and that's one of the reasons I keep playing because I can challenge. I myself never feel like I'm at my best I feel like I still have room to improve I still set goals to strive for I never feel complacent with what I've accomplished even though it's been very successful for me I still feel like I have a lot to prove not only as a player but also as a person, as a father, to a certain extent, as a role model in all aspects, so I am never too complacent with myself or what I have achieved when I get to a point.

Where I feel like I can't improve as a player I will walk away from the game. I still feel like I have a plateau that you know I hadn't reached yet in terms of my abilities or my expectations of myself. I'm always going to expect me to do certain things or overcome certain things as long as I believe that then you'll know that my path to success can continue to expand. I mean, what more can I say? The next year I came back, I broke my foot. I was out for 65 games and when I come back I want to play, you know, the doctors came up with this whole theory that you can only play seven minutes a game, but I'm practicing two hours a day, you know, I mean it right.

I don't think he doesn't know that I don't agree with that math, you know? Back then it was a case of whoever had the worst record got the most balls and ping-pong balls and you know you can decide how demanding. I was going to have, but I didn't care about that, I just wanted to win, I wanted to make the playoffs, you know, I wanted to keep that energy in Chicago, so I had to go to his office and sit with him, I said, Jerry, you know? “I feel like I should play more than 14 minutes in practice in two hours,” MJ says.

I think I have to protect the long-term investment we have invested in you. That's Jerry. Said. I really think he should be able to play. he said let me ask you this, you said if you had a headache and you know at that point there was about a 10% chance that he could re-injure my ankle or foot. He says if you have a headache and they gave you ten tablets and one of them is coated with cyanide you would take the tylenol and I looked at him I tell him how bad the headache is depending on how bad the headache is